News: Pro D2’s FC Auch
Gers facing potential bankruptcy; Toulon’s troubles continue
07 January 2009
The
future of Pro D2 side FC Auch Gers remains in the
balance after a series of player meetings and secret votes
failed to resolve their present financial crisis.
The club
– currently 11th in Pro D2 – need to urgently find €650,000
to avoid going into liquidation, with the directors
suggesting a threefold rescue package, including a proposed
17% cut in player salaries.
An
initial vote on Tuesday showed only 24 of the 34 players
agreed to the wage drop, with a secret vote following in the
evening in the presence of Provale, the players’ union.
The
players were asked to vote on the salary cut after it
emerged that the club’s reserve fund of €300,000 had already
been spent and that December’s salaries – due to be paid on
January 8 - would be 20% short.
Failure
to reach agreement could result in the club being declared
bankrupt and going into liquidation within 15 days.
The
proposed rescue package – which still needs ratification
once agreed from the league watchdog the DNACG - involves
€250,000 being pumped into the club Eric Beloussof, director
of retail outlet Leclerc, €250,000 being saved by the wage
cuts and a further €150,000 coming from club directors.
Negotiations remain ongoing between the players, the
directors and Provale.
The
club’s players must be casting envious eyes upwards at the
cash that continues to be splashed around in Top 14,
with lucrative contracts seemingly in the offing to any
top-class international that nears the end of his current
contract.
Earlier
this week there was much paper talk about recruiting England
starlet Danny Cipriani next season, with Top 14 clubs
apparently hell bent on attracting the very best players in
world rugby.
According to International Rugby News the French
already have three of the top five players in the world
plying their trade in Top 14, with Stade Francais’ Italian
captain Sergio Parisse ranked number five,
Perpignan’s All Black fly-half Dan Carter at three
and Argentine Juan-Martin Hernandez (also with Stade
Francais) at two.
All
Black captain Richie McCaw was given the honour of being
number one, but it seems no amount of money can tempt the
28-year-old flanker to leave his beloved New Zealand. Not
yet anyway.
Four
other players staying put are Clermont quartet
Alexandre Audebert, Loic Jacquet, Marius Joubert and Benoit
Baby, who have all signed contract extensions with last
year’s championship runners-up.
Meanwhile, Toulon’s troubled season goes from bad to
worse with the French press reporting that Jerry Collins,
the club’s ex-All Black back row, is being investigated by
police over an alleged assault on a woman.
So far
the club, which dropped into the relegation zone following
its latest defeat at the weekend, appears to be standing by
its player.
“We have
made our own inquiries and it appears to us, according to
witnesses we gathered, that the player did nothing,” said a
Toulon statement.
Police
are expected to make a decision about potential charges in
the coming days.
Finally,
on the international stage, France have confirmed
they will host games against New Zealand and South
Africa in November.
It will
be the first time ‘Les Bleus’ have faced the All Blacks
since beating them 20-18 in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final
thanks to a controversial Yannick Jauzion try in Cardiff.
The two
sides have a history of famous World Cup encounters, with
the 2011 tournament again pairing them together – but this
time in the pool stages.
The
clash with the Springboks is the first since France won
36-26 in Cape Town in June 2006.
The
French will also play Samoa for only the second time
in their history, having beaten them 39-22 in Apia in June
1999.
Confirmed dates: Nov 14 v South Africa; Nov 21 v Samoa; Nov
28 v New Zealand.
|
