Appeal trial scheduled for early December in the Laporte-Altrad case

Six half-day hearings have been scheduled for December 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10, according to a schedule that will have to be confirmed during a hearing to set the date on October 6, the same source said, citing information from Midi Libre.

Bernard Laporte and Mohed Altrad, businessman and president of the Montpellier club, were sentenced at first instance on December 13, 2022 by the Paris Criminal Court to suspended prison sentences and a fine. They have both appealed.

Sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence and a €75.000 fine, Bernard Laporte was found guilty of having made a series of arbitrations in favor of the businessman after having received €180.000 from him in March 2017, under a secret image contract that was never executed.

Mohed Altrad, CEO of the construction giant of the same name, was sentenced to an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a €50.000 fine for "paying Bernard Laporte to obtain his favors in his capacity as president of the FFR."

The vice-president of the FFR, Serge Simon, will also be retried before the Paris Court of Appeal, the national financial prosecutor having appealed his acquittal for illegal taking of interest at first instance.

He is suspected of having asked the then head of French refereeing, Joël Dumé, in 2017 to send a referee to the Montpellier-Racing 92 match and thus have the Parisian club forfeit, having obtained a postponement that Mohed Altrad did not want.