Toulouse (AFP)

Toulouse is preparing to change its era. Its president Olivier Sadran announced Thursday that he had entered into exclusive negotiations with an American investment fund for the sale of a club in sport wandering, just relegated to Ligue 2.

Will the next Garonne derby against Bordeaux be played under the sign of the star banner? Like its Girondist rival, the formation of the Pink City is preparing to go under the US flag.

The company RedBird Capital Partners, in contact with the TFC for six months, entered the final stretch to acquire 85% of the red lantern of the last L1 championship, interrupted by the pandemic of the new coronavirus.

At the head of the club since 2001 when he was in the third division, Sadran hopes to finalize the transaction "before July 15", according to a letter to a partner of which AFP has obtained a copy.

The current majority shareholder had not hidden in recent months his desire to turn the page with a team that chained disappointments in sport, at the same time as it exhausted its successive coaches.

The poor results weighed on the atmosphere at the Stadium, which most often sounded empty on match nights. The whistles of the supporters, in conflict with the management, led the long agony of the TFC towards the L2, while it still contested the Europa League in 2009-10.

- 'Mess' -

"I clearly bear full responsibility for this mess, probably monopolized by my job, but also imagining that it was enough to ensure good financial continuity for everything to go smoothly," admitted Sadran in this letter.

The businessman, who also heads the industrial catering group Newrest, however intends to keep a minority share in the new structure, "because I am Toulousain by birth and as such I feel responsible for the TFC which can always count on my passion and support, "he said.

"I am convinced that RedBird Capital Partners has the necessary skills and resources to allow the TFC to return to the elite of French football," he continued, seeming to accept the downgrade to L2 that still contests Amiens, 19th.

From this summer, the new boss of the Pink City should be called Gerry Cardinale, the man at the head of RedBird.

A former partner at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 20 years, this businessman manages more than $ 3 billion in assets with the investment fund he created in 2014. He has already set foot in the sports community through projects with the New York Yankees baseball franchise.

He also invested in the image management of high-level athletes, in sports events or in a regional sports chain in the United States.

"We are looking forward to finalizing our partnership with Olivier and positioning TFC on the road to success in the future," he said.

- Covid-19 crisis -

After Marseille, Bordeaux and Le Havre in L2, all spent in recent years under the American flag, which way will TFC take? It is certainly a new era that should begin on the banks of the Garonne, where we must dream of second place won this season by the OM of billionaire Frank McCourt.

Paris SG (by QSI in 2011), Monaco (by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2011), Lille (by Hispano-Luxembourg businessman Gérard Lopez) or Nice (by British fortune Jim Ratcliffe in 2019) also in the list of French clubs bought by foreign investors attracted by Ligue 1.

But today, the time is in doubt, in an economic context tarnished by the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the premature end of the season. The losses would amount to around 500 M EUR for the L1 teams, according to a club president.

"The coming year, post-Covid-19, will be complicated in terms of partnerships and ticketing (ticketing). We will have to convince all our partners that a new impetus, that a new adventure is taking shape," admitted Olivier Sadran.

The situation is all the more delicate as the TFC evolves in the shade of the rugby players of the Toulouse stadium. No longer rhyming Toulouse with "to lose", the Americans found it a great challenge.

© 2020 AFP