France captain Antoine Dupont finds himself in the eye of a salary cap breach storm as the reigning Six Nations champions prepare to face Italy this weekend.
An article last week in renowned sports newspaper L'Equipe looked into suspect payments made to scrum-half Dupont and his Toulouse team-mate Anthony Jelonch, which it said could be designed to help the French club champions avoid falling foul of salary cap regulations.
Their investigation revolved around a company called 3S-Alyzia, which provides airport operational services such as baggage handling and cargo logistics.
Dupont has been paid a total of around €1.5 million ($1.8m) by 3S-Alyzia since 2017 for imaging rights and promotional activities, with France back-rower Jelonch receiving a total of €170 000 since 2022.
But L'Equipe claimed that it could find almost no evidence of either player's image being used by the company, or of them attending promotional or social functions for 3S-Alyzia.
And since 3S-Alyzia is a Toulouse sponsor, L'Equipe questioned whether the French club could be using "fantom" contracts to enable them to bypass salary cap limits to increase Dupont and Jelonch's earnings.
WITCH HUNT
A separate contract between Dupont and another of Toulouse's partners, professional services company Fiducial, is also under the spotlight, with L'Equipe saying that it has not been declared to the French salary cap regulator.
When asked about the issue last weekend, Dupont said that he could not afford to lose "energy with that" and that his lawyers "are dealing with it for the moment".
His lawyer, Jean Iglesias, told L'Equipe that Dupont, who was paid up to €200 000 a year, had appeared as guest of honour at the company's annual gala.
Speaking to French rugby newspaper Midi Olympique, Iglesias said that the sums involved were normal fees for a player of his magnitude to attend a function.
"For a guy like Antonie Dupont, who is right now one of the biggest (sports) stars in the world, how is it wrong that he receives €200 000 so that the company can parade him from table to table to interact with its partners," said Iglesias.
Toulouse's lawyer, Bruno Cavalie, hit out at the salary cap rules.
"There is no reason for these amounts to be included in the salary cap calculation," he told Midi Olympique, calling the rules "incoherent and illegal".
Back in October, Dupont complained in an interview to several media, including AFP, that he felt "restricted" by the salary cap limit, which was "preventing us from using our individual image (rights) in classic publicity contracts".
"They almost want to know about all of our assets. We're getting to a witch hunt where they want to uncover cheats, but it's becoming ridiculous," he said.
Another story in L'Equipe this week alleged that Toulouse had in 2023 accepted responsibility for not declaring Dupont's 3S-Alyzia contract and agreed to pay a fine.
However, Toulouse said on Tuesday that they would "lodge a defamation complaint" against the newspaper.
Contacted by AFP about L'Equipe's claims, the French League (LNR) refused to comment.
SIX NATIONS BAN
This is not the first time that Toulouse have been caught up in salary cap irregularities.
They were fined €50 000 in 2023 over the transfer of South Africa winger Cheslin Kolbe to Toulon – who were themselves fined €70 000 – due to a "lack of transparency and cooperation".
They were also in hot water over the 2022 transfer of full-back Melvyn Jaminet from Perpignan.
Jaminet took out two loans to raise his own €450 000 release clause to leave the Catalans, with Toulouse thus being able to avoid including the sum in their salary cap allowance.
But that didn't fool authorities and Toulouse had to pay 1.3 million euros to the LNR as well as copping a €45 000 fine and a two-point penalty over the affair.
THEY PERHAPS GOT OFF LIGHTLY
Saracens were relegated from the English Prem in 2020 over a salary cap breach in which then-chairman Nigel Wray used joint-property ventures to boost players' earnings.
French rugby has had a long history of illicit payments.
In 1931, France was excluded from the Six Nations over player violence and shamateurism.
The sport's guardians, the International Rugby Board, only allowed Les Bleus back in eight years later after earnest promises to respect the code of amateurism.