SC Toulon: Claude Joye backs up and tackles Mourad Boudjellal

Following the numerous information revealed by Le Figaro on Monday, the majority shareholder of Sporting Club Toulon has emerged from its silence. In a long press release published Monday evening on the site of the Var club relegated to National 2, Claude Joye evokes the future. His and that of TBS. That he seems to imagine with him always at the helm. Going against the advances appreciated and highlighted by Mourad Boudjellal.

Interview with Claude Joye - SC Toulon https://t.co/HiWcS35B2g

"The 2019-2020 sports results were not up to our expectations and our investments and I am one of the first affected," says Claude Joye. (…) You have to know how to take a step back in order to learn from it, and build solidly for a quick return to the professional world. (…) The important thing is to continue in the development and professionalization of the structure to build a viable project over time. The period of health and financial crisis that our country is going through right now shows us the importance of ensuring stability in the management of the club. ”

Between "taking a step back" and "ensuring stability", it is difficult to know if he will give up his place or try to keep a minimum of power at the head of Sporting. The vagueness is maintained when he talks about his "discussions with Mourad Boudjellal". "I have always been attentive and have made the best possible efforts to promote rapprochement, even to the detriment of financial investments made for several seasons", assures Claude Joye, against verified echoes on the heated debates between the two men.

" Mourad Boudjellal never expressed the will to buy the club and offered us a collaboration model on which we found an oral agreement "

But then its position is refined and cleared up. He has not yet surrendered and says, against all odds, that there has never been any question of a takeover of the club between the two men. Who would have established cordial relations. And Mourad Boudjellal certainly choked on reading these words…

"We first met on February 7 to discuss the objectives and interests of each," says the (future ex?) Boss of TBS. A "first courteous exchange" during which he "expressed to him not to be a seller but to be interested in his coming, in particular because of his strong media and economic potential. He, having never expressed the desire to buy the club, offered us a model of collaboration on which we found an oral agreement during our second meeting, at the end of February. Since then, we have had many discussions to put these conditions in writing and this is how we met this Friday to sign a confidentiality agreement allowing him to carry out a structural audit for a period of 2 weeks maximum. "

READ ALSO: Acquisition of SC Toulon by Mourad Boudjellal: behind the scenes of an ambitious project

A step forward, a step back? Mourad Boudjellal confirmed to us that he wanted to buy the club if this audit satisfied him and that he was not too warm to share the power. He felt he had "taken a big step" in this direction on Friday. This press release will therefore not fail to stir up his wrath. It is not certain, therefore, that Claude Joye's wish will materialize. "We want to move quickly and will not let this situation drag on."

“There is no question of playing the bad losers by attacking the FFF. We weren't invited. Better to go down and rebuild ”

Another point of this press release which will not please the former boss of the RCT, the will displayed of the current majority shareholder of Sporting to "put everything in place to legally defend the interest of the club" following his demotion in National 2 , "A decision we regret". Mourad Boudjellal is in an exactly opposite position. The Var club having won only one meeting during the season, he told us that he did not want to play "the bad losers by attacking the FFF. We weren't invited. Better to go down and rebuild ”...

In this long message, Claude Joye also mentions the information from Le Figaro concerning Pascal Dupraz and Bafétimbi Gomis. He says that the choice of the coach of Caen Ligue 2) would be his (and not that of Boudjellal ...) and that he is "in contact with him since last September". "There has always been a common desire to collaborate without being able to find for the moment an acceptable financial agreement which does not put the club at risk". Way to throw a new stone in the garden of Mourad Boudjellal who has already tied the transfer if he were to buy the Sporting.

" Bafétimbi Gomis would cost Sporting more than ten times its annual budget "

It sows the same disorder concerning the ex-attacker of the Greens and the OL, which evolves since 2018 in Saudi Arabia. "Regarding his possible arrival, we regularly discuss the development of the club but I want to clarify that it would cost Sporting more than ten times his annual budget so that he can join Toulon next season."

The appeasement revealed by Mourad Boudjellal in our columns on Monday therefore seems to have been fleeting. The numerous tackles of Claude Joye against him in this press release indeed indeed resemble a resumption of hostilities. The new meeting between the two men, planned for this Tuesday, is likely to be stormy. Again.

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