Waiting for more than a month, Vital N’Simba will finally be able to plan for next season. Arrived from Clermont in June to sign for Girondins de Bordeaux, the 29-year-old Congolese defender has been training for several weeks, without a contract, with the club in the scapular. He has been waiting for his approval since the decision taken on June 14 by the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG), the financial policeman of French football, to administratively demote the Girondins to National 1.
The decision taken by the executive committee of the French Football Federation (FFF), Wednesday, July 27, clarifies the future of N’Simba, like that of all players in the Bordeaux workforce. The body of the FFF has decided to reintegrate the Girondins in Ligue 2, going in the direction of the conciliation proposed Monday by the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).
For the hundred-year-old club, a historical monument of French football, this decision is both a huge relief – it avoids a bankruptcy filing which seemed inevitable in the event of a demotion in the amateur world – and a victory, after several weeks of intense negotiations. After the confirmation on appeal, by the DNCG, of the administrative demotion, on July 5, Gérard Lopez, the president of the Girondins, found agreements to demonstrate the financial capacity of the club to continue its activity next season.
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On July 19, the Bordeaux Commercial Court validated these agreements, giving weight to the Girondins’ file before their appearance before the CNOSF. Gérard Lopez has found an arrangement with the club’s creditors, the American investment funds Fortress and King Street, for the latter to abandon half of the 53 million euros in debt and to restructure the other half.
The businessman also placed in sequestration 10 million euros in capital injection, through his Jogo Bonito Group holding company, and 14 million euros in guarantees, an amount that the club said it wanted to reach in the sale of players this summer. In fact, Sékou Mara was officially sold on Tuesday to the English club Southampton against 11 million euros.
A classic preseason for players
All these guarantees have convinced the executive committee of the FFF. “I am relieved for the local ecosystem and I am also personally relieved. But, for me, it is only a step in the restructuring of the club.declares to World Gerard Lopez. Bordeaux is now looking to the coming season, which begins with a first Ligue 2 match against Valenciennes on Saturday at the Matmut Atlantique stadium. For this meeting, the Bordeaux president announced to offer the places. Still, despite the ” relief “ mentioned within the club, the last few weeks have been particularly badly experienced by some of the employees and by some players.
“The club’s internal communication has irritated the workforce. The leaders repeated before each passage in front of the DNCG that everything was finedescribes the agent of a Girondins player. Little by little, we realized that not only had they not answered all the requests, but that in addition they had shown a complete I don’t care. There are deadlines to meet, and that was not the case. » If the DNCG was judged by the executive committee of the FFF, the CNOSF specified that the decision of the financial policeman of French football was legitimate at the time when it was taken, because of the file presented at the time.
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In uncertainty until Wednesday regarding their future, all players had to prepare for a potential hasty departure. “We worked with other clubs to provide a base”concedes Boris Laval, agent of Vital N’Simba. “We stayed on alert, I asked other clubs just in case”confirms the agent of a Bordeaux player.
The players and the staff, however, experienced a classic pre-season, to project themselves, as if nothing had happened, towards the Ligue 2 season. The Girondins thus played five friendly matches, and the players prepared themselves physically, like every summer, before the start of the championship.
New beginnings in August
With three wins, one draw and one defeat in five friendlies, club coach David Guion said ” satisfied ” of the preseason. Without saying a word about the future of the club. An involvement of the workforce which is explained by the fact that “this preparation was useful in any case for the players, whether their future was in Bordeaux or elsewhere”supports Boris Laval.
If Bordeaux is not dropped on the ground, the club has fallen far behind in restructuring its workforce. After that of Sékou Mara, the Girondins expect new players to leave in August (Alberth Elis, Hwang Ui-jo, Junior Onana, etc.). Tuesday, August 2, the club will have to go one last time before the DNCG, which can decide to regulate its payroll or ban it from recruitment.
“The objective will always be the ascent [en Ligue 1], if they let us work normally,” assures Gérard Lopez, aware that the Girondins will have to hire several players in August. A poor start in Ligue 2 would jeopardize this objective as only two teams will be promoted next year to the first division, due to the increase to eighteen clubs in the top flight in 2023-2024.
“We believe in it, we wouldn’t be here otherwise. With five or six quality arrivals, the eleven can be very solid”, assures Boris Laval. For his part, the other agent is less optimistic: “Given the delay they have taken, I find it difficult to see Bordeaux coming back directly. And the same situation [devant la DNCG] will take place in a year. With the people who are at the head of the club, unfortunately, what happens is a headlong rush. “We are leaving on a very solid financial basis to rebuild”retorts Gérard Lopez.
Considered dramatic at the end of May after the club’s relegation from Ligue 1, Bordeaux’s presence in Ligue 2 now acts as a miracle. The supporters welcomed the decision of the FFF, as in July 2021, when the DNCG had validated the takeover of the club by Gérard Lopez, when the Girondins were preparing to sink following the total withdrawal of Fortress and King Street . Before finding the vertigo of Ligue 1, the Girondins have not finished with the emotional lift.