“It’s a mix between anger and disgust.” After the announcement of the end of the professional adventure of Bordeaux-Bruges-Lormont, Jean-Paul Onillon, now ex-president of this handball club, appears largely bitter. And for good reason, a few days ago the BBL formalized on its networks “the end of (his) professional team”. This is not the fault of insufficient sports results to maintain its status. It is rather on the side of “political lies and broken promises” that we must look to find the culprit, according to the official press release.
Promoted to the Proligue (the equivalent of the second division) last season, the BBL ended the year with an honorable eighth position in a pool of 16 teams. “Initially, we had the ambition to maintain, rewinds Jean-Paul Onillon. We did it more than easily, since if we hadn’t had the 4 penalty points (imposed by the CNACG last March following breaches of the NHL’s financial regulations), we would have qualified for the play-off. and therefore still in the running for a potential move up to the top division. »
Even if he readily admits the utopianism of such a hypothesis, Jean-Paul Onillon points the finger at the lack of support from communities. “When we look at Nantes or Montpellier, which are regularly in the Champions League, we see that they can benefit from support from cities or metropolises”, regrets the former Parisian leader.
A club and communities that pass the buck
In Bordeaux, Jean-Paul Onillon says he was not so lucky. ” If I benchmark all proleague clubs, the average grant is between €650 and €700,000. We, in pure subsidy, we had 120,000 € from the Region and the department”. Nothing therefore from the municipalities that the club represented and from the metropolis. Widely singled out, the mayor of Bruges, Brigitte Terraza, nevertheless explains that she has been transparent since the start of the project: “From the start, I announced that the city could not help the club. And the metropolis does not have the sport skill and has never wanted to take it. On the other hand, to accompany them and make the room available, there yes, of course. »
The support then had to take another form, and the club asked for a list of companies and potential partners, in order to find the necessary funding. Terraza defends itself: “I provided a list of companies, and Jean Touzeau, the mayor of Lormont, did the same. But with the Covid-19, everyone has reduced their sails and money is scarce. I wasn’t going to call the CEOs, harass them or whatever. It’s not my way and I don’t want to be held accountable. I did what was asked of me. »
“Insufficient” efforts for Jean-Paul Onillon, who then turned to the metropolis to request exceptional assistance, “which the Girondins de Bordeaux football club was able to take advantage of”. But there again, the club does not receive the hoped-for support. Contacted by 20 minutes, the metropolis affirms that “no sports club in the metropolis benefits from a direct subsidy from BM. It is not possible to create a precedent without any other justification than the finding of a budget deficit following a poor estimate of revenue. “And justifies the exceptional aid granted to the Girondins de Bordeaux: “The FCGB is the resident club of the Matmut stadium and as such, it owes a fee to BM. Payment of this fee has been staggered, but the amount remains due. It is therefore in no way a subsidy to the club. Faced with these refusals, Jean-Paul Onillon regrets that “high-level sport in Bordeaux is not a priority”.
“We must do more for the sport”
However, a few days ago the town hall of the Gironde capital launched its communication campaign “So much sport to share”. If football, rugby or the Tour de France were widely discussed during the speech of the mayor and his deputy in charge of sports, Mathieu Hazouard, handball was obviously one of the great forgotten of this campaign. At least in the speech, since the BBL did not make an appearance in the speech of the two elected officials at the time of the congratulations. A “totally involuntary” oversight, according to the Bordeaux deputy.
The latter added: “This is a file that I have been following daily since the beginning, it is a great shame that the adventure ends there. “Before defending himself against the accusations leveled against the communities, and recalling that the city of Bordeaux “allowed the club to play Jean Dauguet” when he was looking for a room that could accommodate him after his rise in Proligue . “Now the basic question is that we must do more for the sport,” he concludes. In the meantime, Bordeaux will have to wait before tasting very high level handball again.