Wild Bill and the Toulon lie factory
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:23
It has been revealed that Mourad Boudjellal, the President of big-spending French Top 14 club Toulon, lied about the details of his club's negotiations with controversial former League star Sonny Bill Williams.
Recent reports indicate that Williams, a star player with Sydney League side Bulldogs, had signed a contract to play for Toulon two weeks before he walked out on his League club.
The incident has sparked great controversy in both League and Union circles, and the Bulldogs even initiated legal proceedings against Toulon and Williams.
The League outfit then retracted, accepting an out-of-court settlement from Toulon for AU$750,000 (ZAR5-million) for Williams' breach of contract.
Boudjellal himself admitted to Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper that he lied about his dealings with Williams prior to the player arriving at the club.
The millionaire let it slip that Williams had already sealed his playing contract with Toulon prior to his departure from Australia on July 26, despite the French club's official party line that Williams only signed his contract after arriving in France.
"His agents came to Toulon and we came to a financial agreement pretty easily," Boudjellal told the Telegraph.
"I only had one demand. Given his inexperience I didn't want him to be considered as one of the two supplementary players we were allowed to sign [after the July 15 deadline for signing players].
"So on the morning of the 15th, Sonny Bill Williams sent us his signed contract that we sent straight away to the league."
Boudjellal insisted at the time that the story broke, that Williams was not yet signed by the French outfit, but has since admitted that he was speaking with a forked tongue.
"The problem was the four-year contract that Sonny had with the Bulldogs," he told Midi Olympique.
"He quickly explained to us that his departure from Australia would not be simple and that the Bulldogs' directors wouldn't just let him go like that.
"So I decided on a total media blackout," said Boudjellal.
He went on to explain how he created a deliberate false story in cahoots with former All Black captain Tana Umaga, who is currently the coach of Toulon.
"Tana Umaga and I decided to say he had come for a meeting between him and Williams to speak of his possible signing."
"I measured the risk of engaging a player who had never played in rugby union but Tana was sure about him.
"He assured me that we wouldn't have anything to regret. So I gave him the green light to contact him.
"He came back 24 hours later to say he had the agreement of the player to come."
Apparently, Toulon had to conceal Williams's whereabouts in order to keep him away from the press, as well as the Bulldogs' lawyers, who were keen to commence legal proceedings. He was apparently hidden in Toulon, Paris and London.
Boudjellal further revealed that Williams' first match for Toulon against Carqueiranne-Hyeres was a marker to his former employers that he wasn't going back to the Bulldogs.
"After the training match the Bulldogs understood the player would not be coming back and negotiations to finish with all these procedures started.
"At the outset they wanted an astronomical sum of money. Then they asked us to make a step in their direction and not play Sonny Bill Williams against Toulouse.
"It was only a friendly match so I accepted unconditionally. The following morning the tone of the discussions were a lot more peaceful.
"The Bulldogs directors wanted to get out of it with their heads high and with the most money possible.
"We came to an agreement fairly easily especially with the player in person accepting to pay a large part of the financial compensation to come to Toulon."
Boudjellal was coy when Williams was first linked to Toulon, and was quoted as saying: "We did make contact some time ago with Sonny Bill Williams. He said to us that he wanted to move from Rugby League to Union but that is where it finished."
On another occasion he told ABC Radio: "Today we haven't signed a contract because I haven't met Sonny Bill Williams. I know he wishes to play rugby. I know he wishes to play at Toulon under Tana Umaga."
