The warning shot this time comes from the OGC Nice association, which has initiated legal proceedings against the President of the same club, Maurice Cohen, for embezzlement of funds. It is important to remember that it is thanks to the association that the professional status is given to the club. It is also worth reminding that the DNCG (the financial watchdog of French football) had summoned both parties on March 7, and on March 15, Maurice Cohen is scheduled to appear before the criminal court to answer an accusation of “slander and defamation” through the media. The mess can continue to carry its name of Nice style in a red and black house where “a fine mess” reigns.
Is it still clear in everyone’s mind that the basis of their daily work is called “Football” and that they have the fantastic opportunity to manage their club as well as their city? A president, otherwise with average good results, is fired disgracefully but returns like a phoenix after a rocambolesque tragicomic episode. Complaints are filed in court within an entity; there is squabbling through the media or mutual acquaintances—a real playground for adults, in the middle of which there is also a ball. And even if this sport is “as they say” rotten with money, violence or other schemes, it is primarily a game and as such must be the source of all passion. Certainly, the arrival of Franck Giudicelli seems to have humanized the club’s surroundings, but the day-by-day increasing tensions corrupt the essence that distinguishes a club as either bad or good. With the derby in Marseille coming up soon and welcoming the Monegasque neighbors, this is certainly going to be beneficial for Antonetti’s troops, who have already tolerated a lot of foolishness since the start of the season.
Today, Maurice Cohen will make a statement to the press at the club headquarters and, no doubt, the attack will not go without retaliation in a battle of management as useless as it is disastrous and which has already led many other Nice team sports to shut down.
Politically, who are nevertheless the principal financiers of the club, there are no reactions, even less position-taking or decisions in an attempt to bring back a semblance of calm and especially reason to characters driven solely by an ambition as enormous as their ego. On the board of directors side, there’s calm on the horizon which, indeed, seems almost preferable to the last noisy episode similar to a mountain giving birth to a mouse.
Fortunately, there is still the field of play, and there, it must be said that the men in place are doing their job, and the recent draw obtained against Rennes with a heavily weakened team is a new proof of the eaglets’ resurgence with each outing.
One thing is for sure, in Nice, the twelfth man isn’t the club’s managers!
