Bordeaux (AFP)
The ecologist Pierre Hurmic, who will take up his post as mayor of Bordeaux on Friday, asked the shareholder of the Girondins club, the American investment fund King Street, on Monday to separate from President Frédéric Longuépée, in open conflict with the supporters.
In a video interview with Sud Ouest, Hurmic said the situation on the Girondins' file was "serious". "A club cannot afford the luxury of going against the main supporter club and treating them with such contempt and arrogance, with threats of criminal penalties," he said.
"These supporters, they are children of Bordeaux, citizens, it is normal that the mayor weighs with all his political weight to go very quickly to meet the shareholder King Street and tell him to endow this club with a new president. Mr. Longuépée's days should be counted, "he also explained on France 3 on Monday.
The outgoing mayor Nicolas Florian would indeed soon meet the American leaders of King Street if he was elected.
Mr. Hurmic told Sud Ouest to be "ready to honor this meeting" to tell the shareholder "that Mr. Longuépée must leave". According to him, "a president who does not have the confidence of the supporters cannot remain any longer at the head of this club".
The 65-year-old environmentalist, who ended 73 years of right-wing reign in Bordeaux, attended a rally of around 2,500 Girondin supporters on Saturday outside the town hall where they had "shouted their anger" against the leadership of the club, which they have been asking to leave for many months and which they consider too mercantile.
Mr. Hurmic also reaffirmed Monday his desire, already expressed during his campaign, to sell the Matmut Atlantique stadium, where the Girondins are playing: "It does not shock me that the club owns its work tool, it is done in the big European clubs, why not in Bordeaux ".
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