Top 14 side Toulon Owner Mourad Boudjellal threatened to sue the Australian Rugby Union and demand "millions of euros" in compensation if Quade Cooper reneges on his contract with the French club, according to Iain Payten of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. Boudjellal "raged at the news that Cooper is poised to sign a new four-year contract with the ARU" that will see him playing sevens at the Olympics in '16. Cooper "already signed a contract with Toulon earlier in the year and even posed up for a photo with Boudjellal in a jersey but the Wallabies no.10 later had a change of heart and continued to negotiate with the ARU about staying." It "was anticipated Cooper would have to pay a compensation fee" to Toulon of more than A$200,000 ($147,000) to break the contract but upset at the way the ARU had not respected Toulon’s contract, Boudjellal indicated he could pursue them for far more than that. Boudjellal said, "The damage to our image is significant. He took a photo with us, we centered our season ticket campaign around him, his jersey is on sale. What’s more, we passed on other fly-halves to get him." Reports said that Boudjellal added, "La Fédération australienne n’a pas le cul propre," which is said to translate to "the Australian Federaron don’t have a clean a***", but is slang for "they have played dirty." Boudjellal said, "If Cooper doesn’t come, the compensation will be in millions of euros" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 7/22).
