Pro D2 – Biarritz: the new owners remain silent, any answers on Tuesday?

It was just after 9 o’clock this morning when the general meeting in Olympics in Biarritz have begun. In Biarritz, swept away that morning by light rain, the shareholders arrived slowly, a little earlier, via Avenue Henri Haget, where about ten journalists and a few supporters were waiting. The new bosses of BOPB, whether they are named Shaun Hegarty, Flip van der Merwe or Marc Baget, joined the Kampf stand at the railing of the Aguiléra stadium, thus avoiding the curious people around the stadium. They were accompanied by lawyers Christophe Cariou-Martin and Arnaud Dubois.

Van der Merwe president, Dubois and Cariou Martin on the board

The general assembly lasted a good two hours. It took place in a good atmosphere according to the participants, but at the end none of the shareholders present wanted to comment. Hegarty and his associates then left the Kampf Stand discreetly, still from inside the stadium, to reach the Aguiléra Stand where a board of supervisors followed.
As announced last month by Shaun Hegarty, former second row Flip van der Merwe (38) was elected chairman. Christophe Cariou-Martin (aged 47) and Arnaud Dubois (aged 40) were appointed as members of the board, while Shaun Hegarty (aged 40) retained the presidency of the supervisory board. Cariou-Martin is close to Hegarty, whose lawyer he is also. Dubois was administrative and financial director of AS Béziers Hérault from 2012 to 2017. Last year he supported businessman Romain Détréwhen he considered buying the Olympic Biarritz from Jean-Baptiste Aldigé.

No announcement

For the rest? “We have nothing to say, we let the presidents make the announcements“, indicated one of the shareholders leaving the Kampf booth. A few minutes later, Christophe Cariou-Martin, new member of the board, came down from the Blanco booth to explain that there would be no speech this Monday. The lawyer postponed the meeting for at least 24 hours , explaining that his teams wanted to remain focused on. the expected passage before the Rugby Regulatory Authority (A2R), scheduled for tomorrow at 1:15 p.m..
A month earlier, during the press conference where Shaun Hegarty formalized the takeover of the club, the former three-quarter center had agreed to meet on May 6 to find out more about financial support supporting him in this recovery project. “We will talk about this whole project from the moment we have full control of the club.“, Hegarty said at the time. In all likelihood, we will have to wait at least one more day before we know more about the financial support that comes with the project. This Monday, around Aguiléra, a person present during the morning general assembly told us about the Biarritz project: “At the moment, at the investor level, it’s vague… We don’t know more.“

Hegarty: “We will communicate after A2R”

It was around 1.30pm that Marc Baget, Flip van der Merwe, Shaun Hégarty and Arnaud Dubois left the Aguiléra stadium. The head of the representative office and the new board member confirmed that they will not make any official announcement this Monday. “Tomorrow we go to A2R. Out of respect for them, we will communicate afterwards. The board of representatives has decided that a communication will be made after tomorrow’s essential meeting. I hear and understand (the pressure around the passage in front of A2R, ed. note), it’s legit and I thank all the people who love this club, who want to know. We presented to the general meeting everything we will present tomorrow for A2R, and we will proceed calmly” explained Hegarty.

“The AGM went well this morning, we have a very important deadline tomorrow, before the DNACG. She is ready, but out of respect for them, we give them priority. I believe that the shareholders were reassured by the presentation given to them. Now there is another half to do before DNACG to appease the authorities“, concluded Dubois. See you tomorrow then?