Pierre Hurmic, the environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux.
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UGO AMEZ / SIPA
The town hall of Bordeaux is organizing its third meeting of the consultation committee around the Girondins de Bordeaux on Wednesday.
Very offensive towards management and shareholders during the electoral campaign, Pierre Hurmic denies having obtained anything since taking office.
He still wants a change in governance at the head of the club and hopes to have some clarification by this summer on the possible redemption of the Navy and White.
Gone are the days when Pierre Hurmic was on the verge of climbing to the platform of the Ultramarines, the largest group of Bordeaux supporters, during a rally against the management and shareholder of the Girondins.
It was June 27, 2020 on the eve of the second round of the municipal election.
Since then, the elected environmentalist has become mayor and his attacks against the leaders of the Navy and White are increasingly rare.
For example, he no longer calls loudly for the resignation of Frédéric Longuépée, the club's CEO, which at the time won him the sympathy of many supporters.
This Wednesday, he will meet the representatives of the Ultramarines in a much more tense context during the third meeting of the consultation committee dedicated to the Girondins.
Eight months later, they are more and more angry with him for having obtained absolutely nothing from King Street, the American investment fund that owns the club.
Pierre Hurmic has therefore decided to get out of the woods and defend himself with
20 Minutes,
while the situation of the Girondins remains worrying.
What do you expect from this meeting?
Many things !
Already, renewing contact between the town hall, the club and the supporters.
This consultation committee will be co-chaired by Alain Giresse and myself.
The objective is to find a solution as quickly as possible and to obtain clarification in the face of a situation that I qualify as worrying.
I am convinced that it will turn out better than the last time [during the last meeting, on October 8, 2020, the representatives of the Ultramarines had left it because of the presence of Arnaud Poupard, responsible for the security of the club and right arm of Frédéric Longuépée, who will be absent this time].
Where are you today with the Girondins?
I haven't had any recent discussions with the club or the owners.
I think that my position on the rent of the stadium does not facilitate the exchanges [he voted against the reduction in the rent of Matmut Atlantique because of the health crisis].
For me, the conditions were absolutely not right.
We are not there to supply the club's cash registers with public money, especially when it does not change its model.
I accept this choice and I consider that I remain consistent with what I have said in the past.
How do you respond to supporters who accuse you of demagoguery or political recovery about the club?
They reproach me for my words about the resignation of Mr. Longuépée but I think I was also consistent there since I immediately requested after my election an exchange with Daniel Ehrmann [Girondins manager for King Street].
I asked him the resignation of Frédéric Longuépée and he did not answer that he was not considering it at all!
So, I asked for it!
After that I did not have 36,000 solutions: either I hung up immediately, or I continued the discussion and at least asked him for financial guarantees on the club.
That's what I did and King Street responded to the DNCG [national management control department].
Municipal in Bordeaux: How did the Girondins invite themselves in the electoral campaign?
https://t.co/exRhb3VPZY via @ 20minutesBord pic.twitter.com/GYIh1z7OYu
- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) May 27, 2020
Do you still wish the resignation of Frédéric Longuépée?
Today, I don't make it a personal issue.
It would be too easy.
I don't want a personal attack even though I asked for his resignation and didn't get it.
My role as mayor is to do everything to ensure that the Girondins move towards a new governance.
I always want a change in governance and I have the impression that this change is requested by everyone.
In the end, eight months later, there hasn't been any real progress?
Listen, I made a first attempt at conciliation, it didn't work.
I do a second and I think I have better guarantees to get something.
I made the commitment to do everything to calm relations and the supporters will be able to speak directly with representatives of the club.
So, I consider that this is not doing nothing!
And then I think that replacing Frédéric Longuépée by a clone of Frédéric Longuépée, that will not solve the problems.
What I want are commitments to change governance and respect for supporters, which has not been the case until now.
Have you been solicited in relation to a club buyout?
No, no, not at the moment.
I know people interested in buying the club, I won't hide it from you, but on behalf of King Street, I haven't been approached in recent months.
I understand he is looking for a buyer with a price around 100 million euros.
I know they are very greedy.
There is also the hypothesis of bankruptcy but that would deprive them of a large sum.
What reassures me today is that filing for bankruptcy is no longer accompanied by an automatic demotion.
Afterwards I think that they like us, we were rolled in the flour by Mr. DaGrosa [president of the investment fund GACP and co-owner of the club until October 2019].
Are you hoping for a quick sale of the club?
I am not the one who decides.
One thing is certain, I do not want us to remain in this uncertainty.
I wish a clarification on this subject by this summer!
Do you regret the opacity of King Street?
So clearly you want to know if I am for a Marseille-style solution with a King Street leader who comes to explain himself, I will answer you right now!
For me, a club owner must make himself known, must discuss directly with the supporters, that seems to me today to be a good solution.
A very good solution even!
Where is the sale of the stadium going since you also wanted to break the PPP [public-private partnership]?
Already, I would like to point out that this is a city competence.
There too, I was opposed at the time to the transfer of this one from the city to the metropolis.
The PPP is an extremely complex contract but I promise you that we are working on it, that lawyers are working on it now.
I think things will change over the next few months.
For you, is it up to the Girondins to take over the stadium?
It is open.
But I have always emphasized the fact that the big European clubs own their stadium.
I don't see what public money is doing in there.
The great stadium is today especially the great mistigri.
It costs too much for everyone.
It is not at all suitable.
I'm trying to repair the damage.
Some people criticize me for not going fast enough today, but it is perhaps because they went too fast at the time.
I recall that I was also opposed to the construction of this stadium.
Bordeaux
Municipal in 2020 in Bordeaux: How the Girondins invited themselves to the electoral campaign?
Sport
Girondins de Bordeaux: "The life of the football club also concerns the municipality", reaffirms Pierre Hurmic
The Ultramarines accuse him of "demagoguery" and "political recovery"
On June 29, 2020, Florian Brunet congratulated Pierre Hurmic on his election as mayor of Bordeaux with a small photo of the new mayor, taken during the campaign, holding a “Longuépée resignation” poster.
Eight months later, the spokesperson for the Ultramarines changed his tone: “His speech and his promises were only demagoguery and political recovery.
Everything has remained a dead letter.
It’s terrible.
We are extremely disappointed.
He was committed to many things and in particular the logo, today nothing has changed.
In other words, the Ultramarines will participate in this Wednesday's meeting with "very little hope" of seeing things move.
Florian Brunet has in any case planned to make the mayor aware of the “pressure cooker” that supporters represent today.
If for the moment there have never been any excesses, the return to the stadium could be very hot in the coming months in the event of the status quo at the Girondins.
Aquitaine
Sport
Mayor
Bordeaux
Pierre Hurmic
Soccer
Girondins of Bordeaux
League 1