Toulouse FC bought by an American investment fund?

TFC at the dawn of a new era? It looks a lot like that. Olivier Sadran, its president, indeed announced on Thursday that he had entered into exclusive negotiations with an American investment fund. Like its regional rival, the Girondins de Bordeaux.

The company RedBird Capital Partners, in contact with the TFC for six months, has thus entered the final stretch to acquire 85% of the red lantern of the last L1 championship, interrupted by the pandemic of the new coronavirus.
At the head of the club since 2001 when he was in National, Sadran hopes here to finalize the transaction "before July 15", according to a letter to a partner of which AFP has obtained a copy.

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The current majority shareholder had not hidden in recent months his desire to turn the page with a team that chained disappointments in sport, at the same time as it exhausted its successive coaches. The poor results weighed on the atmosphere at the Stadium, which most often sounded empty on match nights. The whistles of the supporters, in conflict with the management, led the long agony of the TFC towards the L2, while it still contested the Europa League in 2009-10.
"I clearly bear full responsibility for this mess, probably monopolized by my job, but also imagining that it was enough to ensure good financial continuity for everything to go smoothly," admitted Sadran in this letter.

$ 3 billion in assets

The businessman, who also heads the industrial catering group Newrest, however intends to keep a minority share in the new structure, "because I am born in Toulouse and, as such, I feel responsible for the TFC which always count on my passion and my support, he said before adding: I am convinced that RedBird Capital Partners has the skills and resources necessary to allow the TFC to return to the elite of French football. "

From this summer, the new boss of the Pink City should be called Gerry Cardinale, the man at the head of RedBird. A former partner at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 20 years, this businessman manages more than $ 3 billion in assets with the investment fund he created in 2014. He has already set foot in the sports community through projects with the New York Yankees baseball franchise. He also invested in the image management of high-level athletes, in sports events or in a regional sports chain in the United States.

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After OM, Bordeaux and Le Havre (L2), all of which have spent the last few years under the American flag, what path will TFC take? It is certainly a new era that should begin on the banks of the Garonne, where we must dream of second place won this season by the OM of billionaire Frank McCourt.

The post-Covid-19 future will be complicated

Paris SG (by QSI in 2011), Monaco (by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2011), Lille (by Hispano-Luxembourg businessman Gérard Lopez) or Nice (by British fortune Jim Ratcliffe in 2019) are also included in the list of French clubs bought by foreign investors attracted by Ligue 1.

But today, the time is in doubt, in an economic context tarnished by the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the premature end of the season. The losses would amount to around € 500 million for the L1 teams, according to a club president.
“The coming year, post-Covid-19, will be complicated in terms of partnerships and ticketing. We will have to convince all our partners that a new impetus, that a new adventure is taking shape, ”admitted Olivier Sadran.

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