Biarritz Olympique: the project presented by the new management to the shareholders

Two hours of a general meeting convened this Monday, June 6, by the new owners of Biarritz Olympique. In the Kampf lounge at the Aguiléra stadium, around thirty shareholders, out of the club’s more than 80, gathered to listen to the presentation by the trio of buyers, Shaun Hegarty, Flip Van der Merwe and Marc Baget. Eight resolutions were unanimously adopted. The exchanges were “relieved” several shareholders smiled as they left. “It changes”added another.

The club’s shareholder project sets up a budget of nine million euros for the coming year, with guarantees. The message: lower the sail, without going through the ambitions of the club. “It seems coherent”, noted a shareholder leaving the meeting. Among the room for maneuver, reduce operating expenses. We don’t want to know more. The new management, which gathered the representative council at the end of the general meeting to approve previously adopted decisions, did not want to communicate, contrary to what they had proposed during the transition of the club in early April.

Meet in front of A2R on Tuesday afternoon

We therefore do not want to know who to finance, how and how much? This project must now be defended before A2R (Rugby Regulatory Authority) on Tuesday 7 May. The call is scheduled for 1.15pm and will make it possible to verify the solvency of the financial partners. The “national and international investors”, mentioned by Shaun Hegarty when they formalized the sale of the club. It is only at the end of this meeting that the professional rugby policeman will give the green light to the Biarritz takeover project or not.

The votes confirmed the appointment of Arnaud Dubois to the board of BOPB. The lawyer, close to Romain Détre, particularly supported Limougeaud’s business manager last year in a project to take over Biarritz Olympique that ultimately did not materialize. He served at the Béziers club as administrative and financial director from 2012 to 2017. But he will not take over the helm of the board, contrary to what some rumors had suggested. Thus, the buyers’ lawyer, Christophe Cariou-Martin, said that Shaun Hegarty was actually chairman of the supervisory board and that Flip Van der Merwe remained chairman.