The consequences of the Covid-19 are hurting the Catalans on all fronts. But blood and gold do not disarm.
As with monopoly, the USAP begins a hard straight line: for the moment, nobody falls on its hotels, the luck card carries the misfortune and the “square departure” to bail out seems light years. The worlds of sport and finance are two words that go very well together, harshly brings the era. To succeed, you have to have readability – a guarantee of confidence – and know how to minimize the risks, everything that is deprived of the Pro D2 championship, which has been badly hit by the consequences of the coronavirus. It is only to see the marketing flagship of the hen, the centenary USAP, crumble under the worry and the threat of a possible bankruptcy, to realize the fragility of an economically structurally deficient and punctually endangered economic system (of death ?).
Sportingly
The loose integral. No climb possible in the Top 14, voted in haste the presidents of professional clubs, “hara-kirisant” the contenders for the climb that are Colomiers and the USAP, co-leaders before the suspension of the matches. The other sports have not escaped controversy but at least they have achieved a certain sporting merit. This will not be the case for the Pro D2, reduced to the status quo.
The USAP knows at least where it starts: at the beginning of its ascent. Back to the Belleville hut, two years to the day (May 6, 2019) after his last accession to the Top 14. With whom? That’s the big question, because nothing has been going on for weeks. In this nothingness, the announcement of a transfer – perhaps that of Ben Volavola – would spring up like a ray of hope.
Financially
Catalan leaders have done their accounts. In summary, the club can absorb one white season, not two. François Rivière, its president-patron, is thus preparing to deplore a deficit of 2 to 2.5 million euros in deficit at the end of June (for a budget of 10.5 M €). But the accounts could considerably darken as early as next September depending on the different recovery scenarios. A private session with a capacity of 5,000 spectators would help absorb the crisis. Conversely, the total closed session or – worse – the absence of competition before Christmas would generate a record deficit of € 5 million, which is to say the end of the beans. It may take a Marshall plan to save the Pro D2.
Politically
If the big family of the rygby has chatted a lot for a month and a half, the USAP has also been able to make its position heard by the voice of President Rivière, omnipresent in the media. The boss of the blood and gold defended a right to sports fairness with a new calendar proposal giving pride of place to “summer rugby”. But it is clear that he did not drain any current behind his proposals. Active in the debate but not very influential, like the weight of the USAP and the Pro D2 in French rugby.
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