Seven long years passed before the deliverance for the Olympic Biarritz. Saturday 4 September (at 2 p.m.), at the Aguilera stadium, the Biarrots will host Bordeaux-Bègles at the opening of the 2021-2022 season of the Top 14, the elite French rugby championship, a level they had not tasted since their relegation to the second division, in 2014.
Second in Pro D2 last season, Biarritz acquired its rise after an epic encounter, both on and off the pitch. “The derby of the century”, as the Biarritz president Jean-Baptiste Aldigé named it. On June 12, against Bayonne, the neighbor and sworn enemy, the BO won after a crazy shooting session, which followed a draw after extra time (6-6, 6-5 at the tabs).
The jubilation had seized the Aguilera stadium, where several breaches of the sanitary protocol had been noted: the gauge of 5,000 spectators did not seem to have been respected, and the controls of the sanitary passes had been lacking in rigor. On August 26, the National Rugby League fined the Basque club 20,000 euros. It could rule again when the results of the preliminary investigation opened by the public prosecutor of Bayonne will be known.
Two pronounced but avoided demotions
Still, Biarritz has validated its rise to the Top 14, a championship that this stronghold of French rugby has won five times. “It’s nice, it’s true that we experienced this comeback in a very, very special and very intense way. As a former player, it was incredible ”, rejoices Serge Betsen, former emblematic third row of Olympic Biarritz, French champion in 2002, 2005 and 2006. “It is an additional pride, because it is more difficult to resuscitate a dead than to give birth to a newborn baby., ”Adds Jean-Baptiste Aldigé.
This is because, in seven years, a lot of water has flowed on the shores of the Atlantic. In 2014, Biarritz went down to Pro D2 after finishing last in the Top 14. “I was very disappointed with the situation, recalls Serge Betsen, an assiduous follower of the club since his departure in 2008. We always say to ourselves “how did we come to this?” “
On two occasions, in 2016 and in 2018, the club came close to being demoted to Federal 1 (3e division) for financial reasons, escaping it in extremis after having appealed. “The BO was in Pro D2 with recurring holes at the start of each season from 1.5 million to 3 million euros”remembers Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, appointed president in 2018 after Louis-Vincent Gave, president of the company Gavekal, headquartered in Hong Kong, became the owner of the club by buying back the shares of his co-shareholders.
” The club was dead, it was over. A patient in intensive care, a clinical death, was recovered and placed on a drip. “
Unknown to the general public when he arrives at the head of the BO, Aldigé will quickly be talked about. Born in Agen, former rugby player in Pro D2 in Bordeaux then international Hong Kong, the character is divisive, a bit provocative. He multiplied the conflicts with the local press (refusal of access to the press gallery of the Aguilera stadium for a journalist from South West in August 2018, distribution of caps bearing the slogan “Make journalism honest again”, in March 2019). More recently, Louis-Vincent Gave and Jean-Baptiste Aldigé were ordered on appeal to pay 2,000 euros in damages to the newspaper South West for defamation.
A threat of relocation, in Lille
Last conflict to date, with the municipality of Biarritz this one: Jean-Baptiste Aldigé mentioned a possible relocation of the club, in Lille in particular, where the Biarrots were welcomed with great pomp in August for a training course and a match friendly. The reason ? The rejection by the municipality of a redevelopment and modernization project for the Aguilera stadium due to too high a financial cost.
“Relocation, in Lille or elsewhere, is not a threat, it is a solution to our problem which, today, is killing us”, defends himself Jean-Baptiste Aldigé. “I would be the first to be shocked by the investments that the city has always made in relation to the clubreacts Serge Betsen, now coach in charge of defense in Rouen (Pro D2). But today, sport is a business, you have to have the tools, the keys and the means to manage a club. “
“A non-existent, obsolete stadium and training center”
The young Biarritz president (37 years old) is calling for new infrastructures to increase the club’s revenue thanks to a more important reception of partners (650 so-called “hospitality” seats out of 13,400 places at present). “Biarritz has been talking about having facilities for twenty years, nothing has been done. I find myself with a non-existent, obsolete stadium and training center ”, complete Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, whose departure was requested in March by the association of supporters Miarritzeko Mutilak.
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” NOTe are in a regular dialogue, we look for solutions together for the sustainability of the club in Biarritz. But II am very worried about the Gavekal group’s desire to stay in Biarritz ”, confessed on France Blue, Friday September 3, the mayor of the city, Maider Arosteguy. The latter repeated that it will finance the BO training center at a cost of 8 million euros.
Before a possible relocation next year, the BO should play its European Challenge matches in Lille this season. Despite having the smallest budget of the Top 14 (13 million euros), the club have carried out an ambitious recruitment. For what purpose? “To be able to continue to taste the cake for an additional year”, according to Aldigé. After seven years for the club spent on the lower level, the cake will inevitably have a taste of renewal.