The overwhelming events in Nice rugby over the past few years may soon have a resolution when the City Hall gives the green light to the plan that will allow the FFR to determine the future of the Azurean oval ball.
It is the responsibility of the municipal commission, which this morning will examine the files presented by two potential project sponsors: Métropole Nice Rugby and Stade Niçois, two associations formed after the liquidation of Rugby Nice Côte d’Azur, which collapsed under debts exceeding a million euros.
Just as the Sasp RNCA did two sports seasons earlier, again leaving a heavy deficit of nearly a million. Clearly, poor management is a well-established habit on the Arboras side, even if it means asking the City for a special grant to clear the debts and start anew.
The operation succeeded once but not twice, and this time, the Mayor did not want to give in to a municipal opposition attentive to this issue. Hence, the TGI’s decision requires turning (again) the page and starting from scratch.
The choice of the municipal commission must, above all, answer a simple question: Who has the capacity, merit, and morality to ensure that this latest start is not yet another false start?
As indicated by Jens Weidmann, the President of the Bundesbank, with a now-famous metaphor, “one does not entrust their credit card to someone if one cannot monitor their spending.”
Given the precedents, it would also be wise to avoid “bis in idem”!
There is one thing on which there is a common will and real unanimity: Rugby, the second most popular national sport, cannot and must not disappear in Nice!
Then there are the projects, the who and why, the capacity, merit, and morality.
But first, a little bit of history. Why are we here?
We must not forget that last summer, faced with disagreements between the majority and its opposition within the club, a project led by former Montpellier executive and president Philippe Deffins, supported by former glory Jeff Tordo (allegedly mandated by the mayor of Nice), gave the illusion that a new era was dawning for Nice rugby: Fantastic goals (Pro D2 in three years, Top 14 in the following three years). All thanks to a substantial capital influx. Hence, the old team elected during the last General Assembly stepped down, and the Deffins-Catoni duo (Leader of the opposition and representative of the minority who, through this gambit, became the majority) took control.
Except… Like in a “Neapolitan” theatrical comedy, the follow-up was burlesque: no sign of the promised money, promises remained as they were, and Mr. Deffins, with the same ease with which he arrived, made a U-turn and resigned “by email” with a motivation that alone defines the issue: professional reasons! For the record, his company, already in receivership, was declared in liquidation a few weeks later!
Only Tony Catoni and his associates remained at the helm of the club, with unpaid salaries to the first team players and other creditors for an end of the season that was commendable only for the exemplary behavior of those same players and the technical staff who secured the sporting survival in F1 by doing the job till the end.
But simply to return to the starting point: A project is also about the capacity, merit, and morality of the bearer.
And this leads us to consider the two contenders:
The Stade Niçois with its two co-presidents, Tony Catoni and Thierry Perez (former Montpellier president and vice president of the LNR) whose competencies are undeniable but raises the question… Why is he willing to engage in a club that is not his, with no particular appeal at the moment?
What, then, is the reason for this interest in Nice rugby? Professional (he is a real estate promoter)? Ambition to take a club currently in shadow and bring it into the light? Who are the investors accompanying him in this venture? Because while Thierry Perez is certainly a financially secure individual, we do not believe he is in a position to invest a lot of personal money in a project that must be ambitious (one does not come from Montpellier to Nice to manage an F3 club, or even a regional series).
In short, a local leader, bearers of Philippe Deffins’ “rigged” project, and the club’s president at the time of liquidation, and a national-level leader, from whose engagement we would like to know a little more, simply for the sake of transparency, about his real motivations.
On the other side, Métropole Nice Rugby with a president, Yvan Merlino, accompanied by a number of former “Baldacchino” team leaders, integrating a large part of the volunteers, educators, and parents of the Rugby school. This project is mainly focused on grassroots rugby: the rugby school (one of the best in France), youth teams, women’s and leisure teams, and the first team being the result of training work and not the club’s locomotive.
As one can easily observe, two rugby conceptions are at odds, even if all seem to say the same thing, the difference being not in form but in content.
The Commission will decide, the FFR will be informed just before its Annual General Assembly, which takes place at the end of this week, and will be able to deliberate on the award of the sporting title to the club that will represent Nice rugby in the future.
And why not imagine these two associations working together to advance grouped like a pack, to finally succeed in converting the try!
To be continued…
Image credit: www.povedart.com
