LAST MINUTE (02/14): The audit requested by the club’s management and funded by Frank Giudicelli has just been postponed to a later date by the management itself. The audit was scheduled for the upcoming 12th, 15th, 16th, and 17th of May.
Latest act to date, to choose a chronology, the Union of Sports Journalists of France has just expressed its indignation at the “very threatening and forceful” attitude of OGC Nice’s sports director, Roger Ricort, noting that it also regrets “the poor relations between some members of the professional section of OGC Nice and the journalists for several months.” However, this is unfortunately only the latest episode in an endless series of extracurricular events that cannot leave a sports group unscathed, which will have to fight to the end to hope to take a vacation in the shade of the radiant French premier league.
Of course, it is needless to remind of the constant twists and turns in the relationships among the various club shareholders, who, via mediated press, play a game of cat and mouse, sometimes together to enjoy the cheese, sometimes enemies for reasons as obscure as sometimes inadmissible. Cancellation of the Grand Stade project, Maurice Cohen ousted then reinstated, a lawsuit against X for malpractices, conflictual relations between Pro and Amateurs, regular attacks between shareholders… Nothing is spared to a club that ultimately fares rather well when comparing this situation to much more unfortunate clubs from Nantes, already relegated to play at a lower level next year.
Certainly, managing a professional club is not an easy task and there are numerous examples to demonstrate the difficulty of building a solid group in all aspects of the game on the field as well as behind the scenes. But the accumulation of facts, and who knows maybe misdeeds, at the heart of the red and black house now reveals large growing cracks as the irresponsible behavior of some progresses.
Who wants what? Besides the fact that they harm the club, all these facts also raise many questions about the professional conscience and talent driving the various decision-makers within the red and black nebula. One is accused of engaging in football politics, another is said to be as passionate about football as he is about the breeding of ladybugs in Provence, it can be read here and there that competence is not the forte of some, or even imagine that all this is a conspiracy embedded in a well-oiled plan. In short, instead of making headlines for its good results, proper management, and the reliability of its shareholders, OGC Nice always stars with relegation, its internal schemes, and its inability to harvest the best fruits from such a beautiful plant.
Because even if OGC Nice is incomparable to, if we may compare clubs, Lyon or Marseille, it nonetheless has an incomparable asset with a public that shows up at every meeting. Certainly, everyone would wish for a larger budget but today’s management is arguably closer to precise cost management while yesterday, we could still talk of reinvesting profits!
One does not manage a club like in the 80s because the club of the 2000s no longer meets the same demands and does not have the same needs. A club is a real business and the Aulas empire in Lyon was not built in a day on this model strongly inspired by management techniques applied to large enterprises. Sports, communication, marketing, research, and development… The complementarity of the different services composing a club must also play as accurately as the players they manage. But from passing the ball on feet to tackling from behind, there is only one step at the heart of this OGC Nice between falls and relapses.
Of course, the cover will always be pulled tight enough to mask incompetencies and lack of convictions, but the time seems to have come to face a situation that could next year cost the skin of a club that might even see some members leave by the end of this season. Between inevitability and dismay, the Nice fans hold their breath waiting for the next point synonymous with maintaining in the elite but once their club is saved, some responsible association leaders promise to make their voices heard, which are the engines of the eagles on match evenings at the Ray.
History really has a bad tendency to repeat itself at OGC Nice, enough to make a whole novel out of it. “The Red and the Black,” does that ring a bell?
