Mondial-2023 in France: the competition should bring in “between 45 and 50 million euros” according to the president of the organizing committee

In what state of mind are you 218 days before the World Cup?

There is a lot of excitement: we are entering the organizational phase. All the indicators are rather green, everything is under control. We had this board meeting where we presented our budget review today, the culmination of several months of very in-depth work.

What comes out of this board of directors?

First, it should be noted that the World Cup will be profitable. The financial result is secure. Our reference is the 2015 World Cup in England, where the contexts are quite similar, even 2007 in France. In both cases, we were around 36 million euros in results. We have consolidated all the elements, all the legal entities: this leads us to present a consolidated result between 45 and 50 million euros. We will be above what he had done best in terms of financial result. It will be redistributed to French rugby.

How do you plan to help French rugby?

Organizing a World Cup is not just about organizing forty-eight matches, hosting twenty teams, welcoming 600,000 foreign visitors… We want to reflect on our raison d’être. How can we contribute – modestly – to solving the current problems of society? We have identified four major areas in which we want to get involved: the sustainable and circular economy; training, employment and education; Environmental protection; inclusion and the fight against discrimination. We also want to build a budget that will take care of these societal issues.

45 or 50 million, are we far from the initial promises?

There is a figure that has circulated, around 65 million, but it dates from the filing of the application file. We have a particular timeframe: you start seven years before, but 69% of expenses arrive in the last year. We had to update the figures: the initial budget did not include the apprentice training center, the economic interest group or the endowment fund (…) The budget, in total, is around 800 million receipts.

Has inflation been taken into account?

Revenue opportunities have been identified, primarily ticketing and sponsors. 17 million additional revenues have been identified. We have all our sponsors. Two French partners will be announced soon. On the expenses, we looked closely, we took inflation into account, around 7 million more, we reframed the personnel expenses, around 10 million. We have no taboo to say that, in certain professions, it is better to seek external services because the skills are there (…) The priority is to secure the preparation, the delivery of the tournament to the best standards.

What about the ecological question?

A major sporting event like the Mondial must demonstrate that we can contribute to the protection of the environment. First, by trying to reduce our CO2 emissions. We are going to welcome 600,000 foreign visitors, it will not be neutral. These carbon emissions have been calculated at around 300,000 tonnes of CO2. We are going to engage in carbon absorption programs.

Aren’t you afraid that recent cases around Claude Atcher, Sébastien Chabal, or Bernard Laporte will have a negative impact?

These are matters of the past. These cases were seven months ago. The World Cup is in seven months. Today, we look to the future and we try not to look back too much. What we are doing is exceptional! There are so many beautiful positive projects, that’s what we want to tell. It’s an exceptional thing! Our job is to create sporting emotion!