Moribund in Ligue 1, the Girondins de Bordeaux, however, thought to escape relegation on the ground, at least for a few small points.
It was without counting their American owner, who decided to leave the ship with five short days of the end of the championship, posing a threat even worse than a season in Ligue 2. What risks the club?
We take stock.
What happened Thursday night?
It is the story of an announced shipwreck. Thursday, in a press release, the Girondins de Bordeaux, current 16th in Ligue 1, suddenly revealed that their majority shareholder, the American investment fund King Street, no longer "wishes to support the club and finance the current and future needs" of Girondins. Clearly, they leave the ship. "An ad hoc representative has been appointed (who) will be responsible for assisting FC Girondins de Bordeaux in its search for a lasting solution", added the club, referring to "the economic context linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and (the) withdrawal of Mediapro (having) caused an unprecedented drop in revenues for French football clubs ”.
As it stands, the future of the club is therefore in the hands of the city's commercial court and the agent appointed for a possible resale.
The players, who left to go green in Brittany for their decisive match in the fight to stay in Lorient on Sunday, were warned of the news when they got off the plane, the other club employees by a simple email internal.
Fans and many former players have expressed their anger at the failed owners.
Who is King Street and what was he looking for?
The King Street investment fund had bought in the fall of 2018, for 100 million euros, the Bordeaux club until then owned by the M 6 channel, in the company of another American fund, GACP, very spendthrift, including he bought the shares a year later. King Street, majority shareholder without headliner or overflowing passion for football, has also invested 46 million euros in equity according to the press release. A sum ultimately not very important in current football but which had been sufficient to cross twice the obstacle of the DNCG (National Directorate of Management Control). The catch is that this sum did not generate any return on investment. According to 20 Minutes
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the club's deficit today amounts to more than 100 million euros, including a loan of 40 million euros from another investment fund named Fortress.
A very large amount which could slow down potential investors.
“There was a hope of short-term capital gain.
The Mediapro contract was the objective of these investors, it is one of the perverse effects of this contract.
It has piqued the interest of hedge funds for an almost immediate return.
But last October, their model was already dead with the fiasco of TV rights, not to mention the health crisis, ”analyzes Vincent Chaudel, from the Observatory of Sport Business.
What future for Bordeaux?
Now, according to an internal club e-mail cited by the newspaper Sud Ouest, the ball is in the court of the agent appointed by the commercial court to "allow the examination of all options for maintaining the activity". "During the duration of this procedure intended to shape a recovery plan, the life of the club will continue and salaries will be paid", we can read.
Fortunately for the Girondins, the French Football Federation had opened the umbrella in view of the crisis which is going through European football. The FFF had decided last December that a club which would be the subject of a safeguard or receivership procedure opened before the resumption of the 2021-2022 championships will not be automatically demoted to the lower division if it benefits from a rescue solution supervised by a competent court "before the same deadline". It's already that.
In fact, King Street has been looking for buyers for several months. Among these, the project of the businessman and supporter Bruno Fiévet. The latter hoped on L'Equipe TV that "the court is not going to go to the highest bidder" and choose "a new fund (of investments) which knows nothing about football which will come to use it and redo what it is. we have known for three years ”. Several takeover projects mentioned in the past could be reborn from their ashes, and the name of Gérard Lopez, former boss of Losc, specialist in financial operations on sports structures, is even mentioned. "The Girondins de Bordeaux are one of the finest achievements in French football, there are strengths, with interesting working tools such as the center of Haillan or the Matmut Atlantique stadium", underlines Vincent Chaudel.about the power of attractiveness of the Bordeaux club.
Shadow on the notice board, the buyers have an interest in waiting as late as possible and a liquidation to pay no debt, as was the case of RC Strasbourg in 2011. The club then restarted its history in CFA 2, the 5th national division.
What consequences for Ligue 1?
The worst-case scenario would be a bankruptcy filing before the end of the championship.
Bordeaux would automatically be relegated to the lower division and all the points obtained by the other clubs against the Girondins would evaporate.
A scenario that would have a strong impact on the top of the championship standings.
Paris Saint-Germain would notably regain the lead of L1 at the expense of Lille.
This sporting nightmare seems unlikely, with only five days to go, but the club's accounting reality is still murky.
It will therefore be necessary to wait for the opinion of the agent of the Bordeaux commercial court to definitively exclude it.
With this resounding failure, is Ligue 1 safe in the future from this kind of investor?
It is far from certain.
“There is a paradox.
If beyond the Covid crisis the stadiums fill up again and the show returns, then the model is not dead.
But what financiers like to do is buy low and sell high.
They could even do good business in the next 4 or 5 years, ”notes Vincent Chaudel bitterly.
