The defeat in Saint-Etienne (despite a promising performance which coach Jean Anturville declared was “our best match”) forces Rugby Nice to rank at the bottom of the standings. It is true that the season is still long and the schedule hasn’t been favorable to the Azureans, but it seems that the dreams of glory rest, at least for the 2011-2012 season, on rather shaky foundations.
On Sunday, one of the major teams in the group, Bourg-en-Bresse (4 wins in 4 matches) will be at Arboras and the Nice players will have to outdo themselves to get some breathing room in the standings.
But what grabs even more attention are two other episodes that occurred this weekend:
The first, the reserve team did not travel to Saint-Etienne, which had already happened on the first day of the championship for the match in Castanet in the Toulouse suburbs.
On that occasion, the alleged motivation was the need to use several players from this team to replace those of the first team lacking a federal license. But this time, what was the reason for this forfait? Lack of players or lack of funds for the trip? All the more surprising knowing that the Reichel juniors team was not playing that weekend!
Just for the record, a third forfait would mean the automatic relegation of the first team, highlighting the danger and consequences of such an event!
The second, the Pitchounettes° hosted their Lyon rivals at Arboras for the key match of their championship after two victories in the two matches played. The referee’s expenses were covered under conditions that could be described as amusing, with the official management not having set aside the sum corresponding to the refereeing allowance. It should be noted that without this payment the match would not have taken place!
Following these two events, we are obliged to recall, for the record, a few considerations.
A sports club is, of course, a shared passion, a project, and governance that is expressed primarily in the sporting aspect but also requires administrative and financial control, in marketing and sponsorship.
Unfortunately, one can have all the best intentions in the world, but without the corresponding financial resources, one cannot achieve the set objectives.
Mr. Philippe Deffins, the new club president, is certainly an affable person, undoubtedly passionate about rugby and with experience gained in qualified contexts such as Montpellier and Béziers. He applied to take charge of RNCA and worked towards this end relying on a minority of club officials in opposition to president Christian Baldacchino who had lost the trust of the Nice municipality, the main sponsor of the club.
He achieved this goal and became president with a management team of his choice, the former majority having massively resigned to allow the newcomers the opportunity to govern according to their ideas and methods. This seems to us a completely legitimate condition for some and normal behavior for others. This is in no way about returning to those facts nor regretting the past but rather looking at the present and especially the future.
However, it turns out that the new decision-makers had publicly committed to investing respectively (Mr. Deffins and his associate Andrew Knox, former director of the equipment supplier Canterbury in France) 500,000 € and 600,000 € in the 2011-2012 season (pending better in the ones to come) by proposing a budget of 2,100,000 €, with a significant portion contributed by the City Hall which, according to them, validated this project.
A new Sasp was to be created to encourage the arrival of new investors, probably of foreign origin (but Mr. Knox, who was supposed to be its bearer, has since been absent from all meetings, and no one is aware of the bank guarantee of 600,000 € he had pledged to present urgently).
Is it possible that to this day, that is to say a month and a half after taking charge of the club (September 14) and after learning about the club’s situation, with Mr. Deffins’ first approaches to the Nice club being in July-August, the current financial situation presents such significant gaps and is not clearly defined?
In the meantime, the technical and administrative staff has been reinforced by a new CEO and a new coach (whose skills are not in question), with an inevitably important additional cost, considering these are two people not residing in Nice while the payment of allowances and salaries for players is not regularly assured (and this when the current team members were not stingy with criticism towards the previous president for the management of the former general manager Marc-André Domergue’s emoluments and the technical staff in place at the time).
Mr. Deffins is by profession an entrepreneur and knows well the logic and imperatives of management. He was a leader of Montpellier and Béziers and, therefore, knows the functioning of sports clubs.
Certainly, he did not come from Montpellier to Nice for a mere honorary round without follow-up but with ambitious projects which he did not keep secret and which deserve wishes for success.
But at this point, some questions arise:
Does he not know that without money any beautiful idea is doomed to remain, beyond passion and competence, at the level of mere hope?
That shadows and doubts hover over the ability of new investors to meet their commitments?
Is it possible that the City Hall validated this project and its takeover plan without having appropriate guarantees?
Was a sponsorship by a few former rugby legends in Nice and the support displayed by the deputy in charge of sports enough?
What will be the financial commitment of the municipality to accompany the new team towards the proclaimed objectives (3 years to reach Pro D2 and another three years for promotion to Top 14)?
Finally, hoping that facts will show a more positive and promising reality, what conclusion and morale can be drawn from this takeover?
Without “ringing and tangible” evidence, the future of the club darkens considerably and everyone hopes that the outcome will not be a pale imitation of the demise of the late RRC Nice and that common sense can finally regain its rights on the Arboras side.
