This is the kind of evening that makes the salt and the legend of these derbies. Especially since it could well be the last in history in the Basque country. This Saturday evening, the supporters of Biarritz Olympique will perhaps celebrate their club's rise to Top 14, with the added bonus of bringing the Bayonne rival down to Pro D2. Without having quite the assurance of being able to encourage the BO next year. Its president, Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, has split for a few months from an unusual idea: to relocate his club. And not just a little. In his mind, the Red and White would cross France, from the Pyrénées-Atlantiques to the Lille metropolis. Beware of cold snap.

“We have one of the worst stadiums in Pro D2,” he explains.

Water seeps through the walls of the Blanco stand which dates from the 1970s. We do not have structures worthy of the Top 14. Faced with that, we have two solutions: either we close or we move.

Faced with this ultimatum, Maider Arosteguy, the Biarritz mayor, remains calm.

“I don't believe it for a moment.

I had the opportunity to discuss with Martine Aubry, Lille aims to have a big rugby club but it is out of the question to distort the BO in this way.

However, difficult to stop the former Hong Kong international in his approach.

When we tried to join him, he assured to be in the Lille metropolis “to prepare for the future”.

The Aguilera project at the heart of the quarrel

The divorce between the city of Biarritz and its flagship club seems inevitable. "It is a blow of pressure on the town hall to advance on the Aguilera project", still hopes Nathan Cardet, vice-president of Miarritzeko Mutilak, a group of supporters. The Aguilera plain, a real estate project "cultural in Biarritz, 20 years old" according to Aldigé, at the origin of the quarrel between the volcanic president and the town hall. The BO had agreed with the former mandate to sell the 9 hectares of the plain and build a brand new district around the stadium and a new training center. During the municipal campaign, the deal was the same with Maider Arosteguy.

The link has since broken.

In disagreement on the funding and leadership of the project, the town hall wanted to delay.

It has just obtained the compatibility of the town planning documents, the starting point for a period of 24 months to make the land constructible.

Where the councilor wishes "to have a global vision on the biggest project of the mandate" and to call on an urban planner, the president of the BO is impatient: "The club has nothing to do with the construction of the 350 housing units. planned.

It is an untruth that has been widely spread by the local Basque press, which may have interests with the neighboring club (Bayonne, editor's note).

We want a renovation of our stadium and the creation of a training center on a stand that is already in place.

"

"It's worse than a merger with Bayonne"

Relations have been very tense for several months between the club and the town hall, where the elected does not fail to emphasize the habit of Aldigé to come into conflict with all his interlocutors. “It's a messy communication, not in the responsible control that one expects from someone capable of managing a professional club in the long term. Maider Arosteguy, without ever citing the name of the president of the BO, also recalls that she has made a commitment to her constituents on the training center. An investment of 8 million euros, probably the heaviest of his term of office.

Insufficient for Jean-Baptiste Aldigé. “All the town halls in the region (Agen, Brive, Pau) have changed their structures over the past three years. When will Biarritz's turn come? The president regrets the city's lack of investment. Because even by increasing its own resources with a record sponsor (see box), the club's budget, estimated at 9.5 million euros in 2020, remains insufficient to evolve into Top 14. Last year, that of Agen, the elite donkey cap, amounted to 13.7 million euros.

Caught in the crossfire, the supporters, who contributed to the election of the right-wing mayor, are especially angry with Aldigé: “The relocation is an insult to Biarrots, the Basque Country and all that represents the Basque identity.

It is worse than a merger with Bayonne (project envisaged by a previous management in 2015, note).

The Miarritzeko Mutilak have thus published an open letter requesting the departure of the 37-year-old former Bordeaux.

The sacred union?

Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, however, refuses to take responsibility for the club's disappearance. “When we arrived three years ago, the club was already dead (administratively demoted to Federal 1 by the DNACG, note). We saved him, the plan was not to leave after three years. But with these structures, we are pushed out. "He also wishes to rule out the" despite the upheavals "seen elsewhere in the sports press - he refuses, like his players, to speak in the South West and France Bleu Pays Basque - to qualify the BO's chances of accessing the Top 14.

“We are a team that functions normally, not internally agitated.

I especially want to highlight the work and the tremendous results they have had.

"Above all, this access roadblock has an exceptional character: it is the Basque derby," one of the most incredible sporting events in the world ", assures Aldigé.

On this point at least, he agrees with his supporters.

"It's so irrational that the context at the club can not weigh," said Nathan Cardet, before adding that "this is not a week where we will criticize, there is a sacred union.

Afterwards, does the athlete forgive everything, everyone will find their answer there… ”One thing is certain: if the BO goes up but moves, the party may be short-lived.

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Aldigé: “The partnership with Grindr?

A symbol against all exclusions.

"

We cannot blame him for being inactive.

If he denounces for a long time the lack of investments of the town hall in the club, Jean-Baptiste Aldigé went to seek the money elsewhere.

On May 26, the Biarritz club formalized a unique swimsuit partnership with the LGBT + Grindr dating app.

A sum of one million euros per year is mentioned by Rugbyrama, the second largest amount allocated to a professional rugby club by a jersey sponsor.

So much for the objective of developing own resources.

But Aldigé goes a little further and sees in this signature a nod to his personal history.

“I lived more than 10 years in Hong Kong, where living together is not an issue.

The Basque Country is a more traditional and conservative territory, there were homophobic songs to my still when we arrived, we were called "the Hong Kongers".

The partnership with Grindr is of course a strong symbol of the fight against homophobia but also against all forms of exclusion.

"

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