Mourad Boudjellal (born 5 June 1960) is a French businessman, founder of

Soleil Productions Soleil Productions is a French publisher of both original and imported comic books. History Soleil was founded in 1989 in Toulouse. Soleil quickly became known as a publisher of cartoons and parodies such as Rahan, Blek le Roc et Tarzan. It so ...

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

publishing and sport manager. He was born on 5 June 1960 in

Ollioules Ollioules (; oc, Oliulas) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is a western suburb of Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Ri ...

, near

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

, on the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from ...

Presidency of Toulonnais

In 2006, Boudjellal brought RC Toulonnais, the rugby team of his hometown, to prominence by bringing in big-name players such as

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the second person to represent New Zealand in ...

and

Tana Umaga Jonathan Ionatana Falefasa Umaga (; ; born 27 May 1973) is a New Zealand former rugby union footballer and former captain of the national team, the All Blacks. Since 2016 he has been coach of the Blues in the Super Rugby competition. He playe ...

, and later others including

Steffon Armitage Steffon Armitage (born 20 September 1985) is an English professional rugby union player who currently plays for French club Stade Niçois. Early life and career Born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago in 1985, Armitage grew up in the south ...

, Matt Giteau, Mathieu Bastareaud,

Bakkies Botha John Philip "Bakkies" Botha, (born 22 September 1979) is a South African former professional rugby union player who played as a lock for the Springboks until 2014. He was a member of the national team that won the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France ...

and

Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, CBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scoring the w ...

. This has led British rugby commentator

Martin Gillingham Martin Gillingham (born 9 September 1963, in Leicester) is an English sports commentator and journalist. He commentates on rugby union for various broadcasters including Sky Sports, BT Sport, ITV, SuperSport, and Setanta Ireland, and on athlet ...

to call Toulon a "band of galacticos" (a reference to Real Madrid's galáctico policy). His tenure saw tremendous commercial success for the club.

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Irish rugby journalist Ian Moriarty remarked during the 2012–13 season:

« Boudjellal claimed earlier this season that the financial performance of the club meant he no longer needs to put his own cash in. Whatever you think about his penchant for throwing verbal grenades in the media from time to time, his management from a commercial point of view has been impressive. Toulon have increased their turnover by 500% during his tenure, allowing the club to spend right up to the limit of the salary cap. »

His time as a leader of TRUC has been "colourful", due to his oftentimes somewhat impetuous behaviour, and use of coarse language. Most notably, he was sentenced to 130-days

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from

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

organizer LNR for the following "imaged" outburst after Toulon lost a match against

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label= Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 146,734 (2018). Its metropolitan area (''aire d'attrac ...

in January 2012:

« I had my first referee sodomy against Clermont in the semi-finals in
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. I've just had my second tonight. It's supposed to hurt the first time but it hurts again this time. The images ought to be on
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instead of
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. »

Hyères takeover

In February 2021, Boudjellal signed a takeover deal for French fourth division football team

Hyères FC Hyères Football Club is a football in France, French association football List of football clubs in France, team playing in the city of Hyères, Var. The club was founded in 1912 and played the first ever season of professional football in Fran ...

. The deal came after failures of long-running attempts to take over

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club p ...

and

Sporting Club Toulon Sporting Club Toulon is a association football, football club from Toulon, France, that plays in the Championnat National 2, the fourth tier of the French football league system. The club was founded in 1944 and played under that name until th ...

in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boudjellal, Mourad 1960 births Living people French people of Algerian descent French people of Armenian descent French rugby union chairmen and investors RC Toulonnais People from Ollioules