Paris (AFP)
Stade Français, last in the Top 14, dismissed Tuesday their head coach and sports director Heyneke Meyer, appointed in 2018 to bring the club back on the scene, announced the Paris club in a statement.
Owner and President Hans-Peter Wild had yet reaffirmed on Thursday and Saturday his support for the former South African coach (2012-2015), but the heavy defeat against Racing (25-9) was too much for Meyer , who "submitted his resignation with immediate effect".
According Midi Olympique, the former boss of Boks is replaced temporarily by Laurent Sempere and Julien Arias, two former players of the club who begin their coaching career. It is the new general manager of the club, Thomas Lombard, named Thursday to replace Fabien Grobon, who announced Tuesday to the players.
"Heyneke Meyer is and will remain sporting director and head coach," the owner and president Hans-Peter Wild reaffirmed Thursday. But his desire to continue at any cost with the South African he had recruited in 2018 was met with a 7th loss in 9 days of the championship.
- Dropped by the cloakroom -
And the discontent of the players, who have made more and more open their disagreement with the methods and strategies of the former coach of the Bulls.
"Everyone is not on the same wavelength ... Everyone is not pursuing the same goals", regretted to AFP Morné Steyn, champion of France in 2015 and who played Sunday his last match with the club. "There is so much to review, we are so deficient in some areas," said his side said the captain Yoann Maestri after the setback in front of Racing.
With Meyer, it is the entire cadre of South African origin that should take the door: the former French international and club player Pieter de Villiers (forwards) but also Dewald Senekal, John McFarland and Ricardo Loubscher, according to The Team which confirms the information of Midi Olympique.
The inexperienced Arias-Sempéré duo should be headed by the sporting director Fabrice Landreau, returned at the beginning of the year in the club which he has worn the colors as player and coach.
Wild, a Swiss billionaire of German origin, had bought the club fourteen times champion of France in June 2017 to Thomas Savare, after the failure of the project of fusion with the Racing 92. Its ambition was to bring back the club in a few years to the best continental level, as in the 2000s under the presidency of Max Guazzini.
But Meyer failed to qualify the club for the finals (8th), in a season marked by the departure without the honors of coach Julien Dupuy, ex-historic player of the club, and several players executive (Sergio Parisse, Djibril Camara, Alexandre Flanquart).
Tensions intensified with the start of the season completely missed by Parisians, which led Wild to separate from President Hubert Patricot and General Manager Grobon. The man behind the drinks Capri Sun eventually let go of Wild.
© 2019 AFP