Stade Toulousain, already fined 1.3 million euros for breaching the salary cap over the transfer of international full-back Melvyn Jaminet, are now under threat of a sporting sanction. According to L’Équipe, the A2R (Autorité de régulation du rugby), tasked with ensuring financial fair play in the Top 14, has referred the matter to the “Regulation” section of the French rugby disciplinary board after a seven-month investigation.

The club has been summoned on 8 December for a disciplinary hearing. This time the A2R’s case concerns not the salary, already sanctioned, but accounting irregularities. At issue: a financial arrangement involving a contract between Toulouse and Pacific Heart, a company based in Tahiti, and the handling of repayments linked to Jaminet’s personal loans, the player having paid out 450,000 euros to leave Perpignan.

The A2R has found breaches of transparency obligations and could seek very heavy sanctions: on top of a points deduction, the club is exposed to a transfer ban, exclusion from the play-offs, or even relegation to a lower division.

Toulouse dispute the merits of this additional procedure: according to the club, the mediation agreement that led to the payment of the fine extinguishes any further proceedings. But the A2R points out that its regulatory framework is separate from that of the salary cap, and that its own sanctions can be handed down independently.

If the sanction lands before 31 January, a points deduction could apply as early as this season; after that date, it would be carried over to the following campaign. The precedent is unequivocal, not to say severe: in recent seasons, for budget irregularities, Grenoble were docked 12 points outright, Dax 5 and Biarritz 3, as L’Équipe recalls.