French call for 'honest fight'

Anglo-French rows are the flavour of the week. The French rugby union yesterday unveiled its proposals to stop England from snatching the right to host the 2007 rugby World Cup which Paris had long regarded as a Gallic "fait accompli".

The imaginative and money-drenched counter-bid publicised by the RFU last week has caused fury – and considerable alarm – in France. The president of the Fédération Française de Rugby, Bernard Lapasset, immediately attacked the ground-breaking English plan – for two, back-to back competitions, one for the sport's aristocrats and another for the wannabes – as "élitist" and "demagogic".

In making the formal French presentation yesterday, Lapasset turned down the volume a little. He called for an "honest fight" between the two countries and saluted England as a "great rugby nation". But it is clear that the French remain deeply offended, and worried, by the belated England bid: partly because it was made at all; partly because it draws attention to the fact that the English game is much wealthier than the game in France.

As a result, the FFR presentation yesterday was all about continuity, familiarity and the non-commercial "values" of rugby. The French federation stressed the fact that it planned, as far as possible, to stage a re-run of the successful 1998 football World Cup. The RFU counter-bid envisages the use of 54 venues, including soccer stadiums such as Old Trafford and Villa Park. The FFR bid involves the same 10 venues used in 1998: the Stade de France and the Parc des Princes in Paris and football stadiums in Lens, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseilles, St-Etienne and Lyon.

The FFR video explaining the bid even had footage of Zinedine Zidane running with a rugby ball as a way of linking 2007 to 1998 in the minds of the International Rugby Board, which must decide which plan to accept next month.

In terms of the structure of the competition itself, the French offered the traditional formula of a large qualifying competition, involving a record number of 100 nations. Twenty countries would go to the finals in France, divided into four pools of five teams each, with the top two in each pool qualifying for the quarter-finals.

The rival England bid had suggested two, linked competitions. There would be a 16-nation World Cup finals, with a relatively small qualifying tournament. There would also be a 32-team Nations Cup for "emerging talents". Such a vast, double competition would, potentially, earn much more money for the world game. The rapid advance of professionalism and sponsorship in England makes such a proposition feasible. It would not be possible in France. Hence the French alarm.

There are already concerns at international level that a French World Cup in 2007 might struggle to pay for itself because of the French legal restrictions on tobacco and drink advertising and sponsorship. To soften this anxiety, the FFR explained yesterday that the state-owned lottery monopoly, La Française des Jeux, would organise a huge, extra, national lottery contest linked to the rugby World Cup.

Announcing the details of the French plan, Lapasset said: "Our bid is not directed against the English. England is a great rugby nation... And we do respect what they have done for this sport. We simply have a different philosophy on what the 2007 World Cup should be.

"We are very much attached to our ideas and I am sure that the fight between the English and the French to host the 2007 World Cup will be an honest fight."

Lapasset's tone was quite different in an interview with the sports newspaper, L'Equipe, immediately after the England bid was explained last week. "It's demagogic," he said. "It's a serious infringement of the policy of openness and development of the International Board. We would give the little countries the illusion that they exist for a fortnight but what would they do for the next four years?

"This attitude is typically English. They have always had this élitist vision. I've long watched them trying to change competitions to suit their own interests."

In another interview with the newspaper, Le Parisien, yesterday, Lapasset said: "We want a World Cup which would be a festival for all countries, not one whose principal motive is money."