Pats wants rules, Mola wants to sell his players

“In what sport do we see this?” The Clermont president asked the question on Monday. Two of his counterparts answer it differently.

Jean-Claude Pats was speaking at a press conference, having confirmed that prop Régis Montagne and centre Léon Darricarrère are leaving for Toulon. “The season hasn’t even started and we’re already talking about next season,” the ASM president said, before calling for rules “so that a solution is found and regulates this in a healthier way”.

His main argument is not about the clubs but about the players. “I find it harmful for the players, including those who are leaving, because for a year they’re going to get stick, be challenged, by the supporters, maybe sometimes by you, the journalists. It’s not pleasant for the clubs either, I don’t see who wins in all this.” He also insists Clermont had made “a very good offer” to both players, and respects their decision: “Everyone is free to run their life as they see fit.”

What is already settled for summer 2027

Five club moves and one retirement, all known before kick-off of the season that comes first. On top of that are cases being discussed in public: Castres have agreed terms with Portuguese wing Lucas Martins for 2027-2028, Clovis Le Bail is reported to be heading to Vannes, while Bordeaux are negotiating an extension for Louis Bielle-Biarrey until 2029 and Toulouse for Emmanuel Meafou and Clément Vergé.

Three presidents, three different demands

All six situations have the same thing in common: players whose contracts end in June 2027, free to negotiate elsewhere long before then. Toulouse did not extend Ramos and Cros on the terms they were hoping for, against the backdrop of a salary cap sanction.

Ugo Mola is taking it badly, “affected like never before”, but he shifts the debate somewhere other than Pats does. The Toulouse head coach argues that clubs should be able to cash in on the players they lose, whereas transfer fees have been regulated since Cheslin Kolbe’s move to Toulon in 2021, with clubs required to count part of that income in their wage bill.

Laurent Marti offers a third reading: he did not try his luck with Ramos and Cros because he had no room. “They’re two extraordinary players, but in the back row and at full-back, we have plenty of people at UBB.” The Bordeaux president has in fact just lost Beno Obano to Pau, in a deal that was also opened with 2027 in mind.

A comparison to handle with care

Pats bases his case on football: “As far as I know, in the world of football, at PSG, at Lyon, at Marseille, they’re not already explaining today that next year…” That is the weak point of his argument, because football works exactly like that.

Since the Bosman ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Communities in 1995, a player at the end of his contract leaves for free, with no fee for his club. FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players also allow a player to sign a contract with another club once he enters the final six months of his own. A footballer whose deal ends in June can therefore be officially signed elsewhere from the previous January, and intentions circulate well before then. The same causes produce, in rugby, the situations Pats complains about.

Handball goes even further. This summer, HBC Nantes confirmed that their international back Thibaud Briet is leaving for SC Magdeburg: the 26-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the German club, which he will join in the summer of 2028. That is an announcement made almost two years before he actually arrives, while Pats is upset about one year. It has become common practice among the sport’s big European clubs, who lock in their major signings well in advance.

Elsewhere, the player does not even choose

There is a far harsher model for the player concerned, and it is the NBA’s. A player there can be traded without his consent, overnight, sometimes finding out about his move from the media. To have a veto, he needs a no-trade clause, which requires eight seasons in the league including four with his current team, and a contract signed as a free agent. For the 2026-2027 season, only one player in the entire league formally has one: Damian Lillard.

The other side of the inconvenience

The problem Jean-Claude Pats describes is real, and his point about supporters and journalists giving players stick for a year is fair. But that inconvenience is the price of something players do not have everywhere: stability.

A Top 14 player sees out his contract. He knows the date he is leaving because he chose it, he picks his destination, and he keeps his place and his salary until the last day. Régis Montagne and Léon Darricarrère will play a full season at Clermont before joining Toulon. Thomas Ramos and François Cros will play a whole year in a Toulouse shirt. None of them will wake up one morning to learn from the papers that they are moving city.

That is precisely what the contract guarantees, in both directions. The Jules Coulon case illustrated it this summer: the back-rower may have agreed terms with Perpignan, but he remains a Toulon player until his club releases him. François Rivière admitted it bluntly: “Toulon haven’t released him.”

And the club pays twice

That security for the player comes at a cost, and it is the clubs who bear it. A contract that runs its course means watching a player they developed, improved and often established at international level walk out for free, without any compensation. Clermont thus lose Régis Montagne, who arrived in 2024 and has won nine caps since, and 22-year-old Léon Darricarrère, who has been in France’s wider squad. “ASM helped them grow and I think we could have kept doing that,” Pats sums up.

Then comes a tricky year to manage. You have to play, motivate and sometimes give responsibility to players everyone knows will be elsewhere the following season, while the supporters seize on it. And you have to recruit their replacement, which means entering the very early market you are denouncing: that is exactly what Bordeaux are doing, having chased Beno Obano for 2027 before turning to David Ainu’u or Ntuthuko Mchunu.

It is this double cost that Ugo Mola is targeting when he argues that clubs should be able to cash in on departures. The two men are not at odds: they are describing two sides of the same mechanism, one from the calendar’s point of view, the other from the money’s.

The early moves the Clermont president regrets are therefore not a flaw in the system: they are its price. A market where you can neither hold on to a free player nor move him against his will inevitably produces departures known long in advance, and leaves the developing club without any compensation. The question is what rugby wants to protect first, knowing it cannot keep everything.

That leaves the question none of the three presidents has settled: what exactly would a new rule do? Banning public announcements would change nothing about the negotiation itself, and pushing back the date from which a player can talk to another club would restrict his freedom of contract. That is where the issue will be decided, if it ever is.