Last of the class in Ligue 1, the SCO of Angers has been talking about him for several months and not only sportingly. Between the waltz of the coaches, the multiple industrial tribunal procedures of former employees or the trial scheduled for June against President Saïd Chabane, the image of the club, cited as an example until recently, is now disastrous. Behind the scenes, while the former sponsors are not surprised by the descent into hell, the current partners are wondering and will quickly take stock with the management.
“You wonder if the partners will continue to follow the club? Perhaps the president will start sponsoring. He has never done so in his life.” Bertrand Baudaire, restaurant owner Butchery, former sponsor, and buyer of the club with Saïd Chabane in 2011, has a hard tooth with the president. “I left and three months later he fired Olivier Pickeu like a mess. We are all very disappointed, it’s catastrophic. When I took over the club with him, we were almost given it. When I left the accounts were excellent. Today? There are two kinds of presidents, those who put money into their club and those who leave it. When you sell assets and the money does not stay in the club, you shouldn’t be surprised that it’s not going well. He does what he wants, he owns it.”
“He thought he was God”
For sure, the former vice-president and the current president will no longer eat together. The rupture has been consummated for a few years. And the situation does not surprise the restaurateur. “It’s a mess, continues Baudaire. A man who believes he is better than the others and who fires the best. He thought he was God. Afterwards, there is time in time. When you build a house and the architect leaves, it doesn’t fall apart right away. He thought it was all done thanks to him.” A reference to the Chabane, Moulin, Pickeu triumvirate who built a solid club on the banks of the Loire whose motto was “the Angevin slab”. In 2023 we are closer to indigestion.
“Someone who has no empathy”
Same observation at the “100 ties” club, an Angevin institution which brings together many artisans and local business leaders. Besides, the atmosphere is not good between its president Stéphane Garson and the SCO. “It’s extremely tense, so much so that the president wants me to leave the club of 100 ties, at least the presidency. But what is more important is that the institution of the SCO is currently wavering greatly and that is is more worrying. It is a situation that I have denounced for 2-3 years.”
For the entrepreneur, it is the isolation of Saïd Chabane which is partly the cause of the sinking of the club. “He says himself that his support can be counted on the fingers of one or two hands, at most, within the club. It’s normal for someone who doesn’t have empathy for people. isolated after a while. All the people who still have their napkin rings at his table should have told him that we were going straight into the wall with such a policy. Everything was well built for ten years and collapsed in two seasons. Since 2020 the club has been falling apart.”
Jersey sponsor: 30 to 50% less investment in L2
Several historical sponsors (La Boucherie, Scania, etc.) have left the club in recent years. Others have replaced them and are carefully observing the Angers football landscape as spring approaches. This is the case of Samuel Tual, president of Actual, sponsor of the white and black jerseys until 2024. “The situation is not what was initially desired. The SCO is not in a good dynamic and the results are more than disappointing.” Linked to the club since 2021, the group generally commits to the long term and not to short-term investments requiring you to accept ups and downs in the results. However, relegation would result in a drastic drop in financial commitment. “Contractually, we have specific clauses which provide for relegation in particular. We are a partner on the sports arena and a shirt partner. In Ligue 2 the reduction in investment is between 30 and 50%. We had chosen a club of Ligue 1. In Ligue 2 clubs we already have what it takes.”
“A big point soon”
As for the commitment for next season and a possible renewal of the lease, Samuel Tual leaves the primacy of his questions and conclusions to Saïd Chabane. “We are very committed to sponsorship and we have general principles. What can call into question a partnership is when the club’s project is not the one presented to us or if the values carried by the club are not not in agreement with those that we wish to associate with our image. I have no a priori on all this but the situation obliges us to make a big point soon on these two questions to confirm or not our renewal and our maintenance alongside the club.”
President Chabane should multiply meetings by the end of the season. Because after the indignant tweet last week from Charles Diers, sports assistant and former scoist, who followed the words of Abdel Bouhazama, the former coach, the municipality would like to find a little serenity around the club. Mayor Jean-Marc Verchère nevertheless also has the firm intention of making an appointment with Saïd Chabane for some clarifications before the end of the championship. In Angers, not sure that serenity is on the program right away.
