Bank of Mourad saves Toulon from Top 14's financial police

Yes, the Top 14 is a big-money business, but dark clerks of the FFR and LNR ensure clubs do not play fast and loose with the financial rules, writes James Harrington

If ever you needed proof that French rugby's Top 14 was a high-stakes game for high rollers with money to burn, recent news has delivered it.

Last week, the new billionaire owner of Stade Francais, Germany's Hans-Peter Wild, revealed he was willing to invest €30million of his own money over the next three seasons to right the struggling Stade ship.

The 75-year-old Capri-Sun king joked: "At my age, I've earned the right to have some fun." But he also said that he wanted his investment to become one of the top three clubs in Europe.

And then, on Sunday, it was revealed that Toulon - that rabble-rousing red-and-black symbol of conspicuous Top 14 consumption - were days away from being busted down to the second-tier ProD2 by the dismal-sounding Direction Nationale d'Aide et de Contrôle de Gestion (DNACG), who had discovered a €2million hole in their finances.

Reports said €1.7million of that hole was a payment owed to sportswear manufacturer Puma, following a court ruling after the club ended a contract early in 2011.

In truth, the threat of relegation was snuffed out almost as soon as it began. On Tuesday, the day before the players were due to return for the first day of pre-season training and two months before the new season kicks off on August 19, the club's millionaire president Mourad Boudjellal plugged the hole in return for a noticeably increased stake in the club. He now owes 93% of the shares, as opposed to the 51% he owned on Sunday.

It proves that no-one, not even the comicbook enfant terrible of French rugby, makes the mistake of not taking the DNACG seriously.

It is the second time in a year that the club has been up before the DNACG beak. In August 2016, they were fined €100,000 for breaching the salary cap.

But who are they, these dark clerks of the DNACG?

They are the financial gendarmes of the professional game in France, the thin red-tape line that keeps the financial peace in French rugby. It's their job to ensure the 30 clubs of the Top 14 and ProD2 stay on the financial straight and narrow and do not break the salary cap.

They are funded by the FFR and the LNR, but independent and report only to the union.

Contrary to many opinions, understandable given frequent raids on southern hemisphere playing talent, these forensic accounting detectives wield serious power in France. No club takes the DNACG lightly.

And no club is sacrosanct. Earlier this year, they had their eyes firmly on Toulouse. Until changes at the top and a new source of revenue was enough to satisfy them that the club had stepped back from a financial precipice.

They can scrutinise the accounts of any professional club in France at any time, and punish miscreants with fines of up to €2million. They can - and have - busted clubs down several leagues. They can - and have - suspended player contracts while they made sure the clubs in question had the funds to pay them.

Ask Grenoble. In 2005, a season after they were relegated from the French top flight, Grenoble were ordered out of the professional leagues altogether after an audit of the club's books revealed debts of €3.64million. 

Ask Montauban. The Tarn-et-Garonne club finished the 2010 Top 14 season in 12th place - out of the relegation zone - but were busted down to the ProD2 after they were found to have breached budget rules. The club later filed for bankruptcy and returned to the amateur leagues. In 2014, Montauban returned to the ProD2 ranks.

Ask Bourgoin, Dax, Albi, Beziers, Carcassonne, Perpignan - all big French rugby names, all of whom have risked the wrath of the DNACG in recent seasons. Bourgoin, in fact, could be in trouble again. Federale 3 - the fifth, determinedly amateur, tier of French rugby - beckons if the 1997 European Challenge Cup winners cannot find the finances to keep going.

Before each season, clubs must present their provisional budgets - including TV rights income, sponsorship, ticket sales, regional cash etc. If there is a later discrepancy - say, not all the expected sponsorship money comes through, then the DNACG's dark clerks take an interest. They will want to know how and why the club will fill the hole. Any club that cannot provide acceptable answers will face sanctions. No matter who they are

And, make no mistake, that €10million salary cap is enforced. That is not to say that clubs cannot be inventive with bonuses and image rights to boost players' incomes: a sizeable portion of Dan Carter's Racing 92 pay cheque comes in the form of image rights, for example, while Toulon have made determined and successful use of bonuses for years.

So, yes, there are ways and means to sidestep some of the rules some of time. But woe-betide any club that doesn't keep its books in order. As Toulon very nearly found out this week.