How far it seems, the time when Saïd Chabane celebrated, with his players and employees, the first final of the Angers SCO Coupe de France for over sixty years, in spring 2017. At the time, France 24 was already the portrait of this Franco-Algerian businessman who had put a historic club back in the spotlight.

Two years later, Angers, although stabilized among the elite of French football, has never seemed so fragile. In question, the recent legal setbacks of its emblematic president, who was indicted on Wednesday, February 5, following a police custody as part of an investigation for sexual assault. A case that embarrasses the club, evidenced by the injunction of the Angevin communication service, which threatened to oust the journalists present at the last staff press conference, on February 6, if they were "too insistent" on the subject.

Said Chabane, 55, who has "formally denied" the accusations against him, is indeed in the midst of a storm, the first major hitch in a journey which made him one of the local figures these Last 20 years. A character with undeniable success, but who has also attracted over the years some less laudatory qualifiers, "uncompromising" and "authoritarian" being the two most regularly mentioned.

Ultra-majority shareholder

Its history begins quite far from sport. After graduating from Polytechnique in Algiers, he continued his training on the benches of the École des Mines in Fontainebleau, in France, in the early 1990s, with the aim of returning to the country.

But it is ultimately in the north of the Mediterranean that its future is written. In 1997, the Algerian by birth - an original Kabyle - founded the Cosnelle company about thirty kilometers from Le Mans, in Sarthe. This company specializing in cured meats, and in particular merguez, will be the economic and political pillar of its rise. Twenty years later, the industrial group based in La Ferté-Bernard employs around 800 people, for an annual turnover which, according to sources, currently fluctuates between 65 and 100 million euros.

A recognized entrepreneur in the region, a great football lover, he is potentially a savior for the Le Mans football club, which is experiencing serious financial difficulties. However, it was a little further south-west, on the Angers side, that his commitment materialized. In 2011, he entered the capital of the Angevin club for the first time, up to 10%. He was then only the minority shareholder of a Ligue 2 club, which already had sports director Olivier Pickeu and coach Stéphane Moulin in its ranks.

Nearly a decade later, Saïd Chabane owns 93% of the SCO shares, Olivier Pickeu and Stéphane Moulin are still in place, and the Angevin club has become a regular resident of Ligue 1. Stability and success that have is one of the personalities that counts in the French soccer world In 2015, he became vice-president of the Premier League union, created by the main French clubs to defend their common interests. A structure within which his voice carries, like those of behemoths in the middle, like the Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas or his PSG counterpart Nasser al-Khelaïfi.

The "Chabanie" destabilized

The weekly France Football even decides to award him the title of "leader of the year", in December 2019, based on his exploits: five years of consecutive presence in Ligue 1, and a frantic development of infrastructure of the club. In Angers, four new training grounds, a head office and a shop have been created, near a Jean-Bouin stadium - which has since become Raymond-Kopa - whose complete renovation should be completed in 2021.

Said Chabane, who will soon be called upon to defend himself from his accusations before the courts, has become the essential man of the SCO in Angers. Behind the scenes, some even have fun openly: "We are no longer in Angers, but in Chabania", reports the daily L'Équipe, in its edition of February 6, 2020. A "Chabanie" who is preparing to face this which is probably the biggest crisis of his young existence.

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