The news, kept secret until the end, like the character, fell on Friday. Via a press release, the Iliad group, Free’s parent company, announced that it had “Took note of the resignation of Mr. Rani Assaf from his mandate as Deputy CEO. Rani Assaf, who wishes to devote his time to new projects, will be stepping down as network manager for France and Italy at the end of June 2021. Xavier Niel and Thomas Reynaud hold […] to send Rani Assaf their most sincere thanks for the wonderful years spent within the Group ”.
It doesn’t change anything for the club
During his rise within the internet and telephony operator, one of the designers of the Freebox became one of the 500 largest fortunes in France in the 2010s, reaching € 180M in 2014. The year where he became a shareholder of Nîmes Olympique, before taking the chairmanship in June 2016. What does his resignation from Free change for the crocodile club? Nothing, to tell the truth.
Concerned about the slowness of the procedures related to the provisional stage
According to our information, the 46-year-old Franco-Lebanese just wants to ease off professionally. “The future of NO does not depend on that but on the stadium project”, he recently confided to a relative. And this is what currently concerns him: the establishment of the temporary enclosure (which must replace the Costières during the time of destruction-reconstruction) is hampered by administrative constraints. And there, to carry out his real estate project estimated at 230 M € excluding taxes, Rani Assaf does not intend to resign.
Meeting in the Prefecture and administrative slowness …
A meeting in the Prefecture last Tuesday did not resolve the situation. Namely that the provisional stadium wanted by Rani Assaf on the other side of the highway the time of the destruction-reconstruction of Costières, is hampered by administrative constraints. This future 12,000-seat metal enclosure is subject to an environmental impact study and therefore to a long procedure at its future location, the Zac du Mas de Vignoles.
However, the Costières stadium will no longer be approved to play in Ligue 1 – or even in L2 – at the end of the season. And a derogation so that the Crocs continue to evolve there was subject to the rapid construction of this temporary enclosure. In the current (administrative) state of things, it could not see the light of day before 2023! Meanwhile, according to our information, the French Football Federation (FFF) has requested explanations from Nîmes Olympique, which could be deprived of a playing field for the next championship …
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