Englishman Bill Beaumont, 68, was re-elected for a four-year term on Saturday May 2 to chair World Rugby, the governing body of world rugby. He beat his only competitor, his former vice-president (between 2016 and 2020), the Argentinian Agustin Pichot (45).
The Englishman totaled 28 votes out of a total of 51, against 23 for the former captain of the Argentine Pumas and former player of the Stade Français Paris and Racing 92. Bernard Laporte, the president of the French Rugby Federation, who had rallied Bill Beaumont, becomes the vice-president of World Rugby.
If the election took place between April 26 and April 30, the campaign had started earlier, in early April, when Agustin Pichot had formalized his candidacy. The latter had above all insisted on the need to evolve towards "Fair rugby", more universal. He advocated in particular for more democratic governance, with, ultimately, one vote for each federation.
"In recent years, I have found myself faced with people who do not want to give up an inch of their power, of their dominant position, who act for their interest", he said in an interview with the team, after revealing the broad outlines of his program.
Bill Beaumont, who highlighted the success of the World Cup in Japan or the work on player safety, immediately replied by declaring that he wanted to organize, in the event of a victory, “ an enlarged audit of our governance led by two independent personalities ".
" Our goal is to have a more representative and more diversified international federation that is more in the service of discipline, not one that is seen as supporting the old guard. " he had assured.
The campaign was notably marked by the controversy surrounding the president of the Fijian Federation and Bill Beaumont's weighty support, Francis Kean, a time applying for the executive committee, whose candidacy was ultimately withdrawn in the face of accusations of homophobia.
Bill Beaumont's plans include relaunching a Nations Championship project, which in 2019 had attracted strong opposition.
"Now is not the time for celebration. We have work. We are facing Covid-19 and we must put in place a strategy to return to rugby, which puts the health of the players first ”said Bill Beaumont after the results were released.
“In this time of unprecedented and major crisis, we must now act to bring together the nations of the South and the North and define a reassuring future that respects our differences; to unite federations and professional leagues around a single design ", said Bernard Laporte.
