Gérard Lopez will officially become the owner of the Girondins de Bordeaux this Friday.
In his suitcases, the Spanish-Luxembourg businessman could come with the current national coach, Vladimir Petkovic.
The names of Joao Sacramento, Lucien Favre and David Guion are also circulating to take over from Jean-Louis Gasset.
It's just a matter of hours. Barring an improbable turnaround, Gérard Lopez will become the new owner of the Girondins de Bordeaux on Friday afternoon. This Wednesday, the teams of the Spanish-Luxembourg businessman took the last important step towards the buyout of the club before the Bordeaux Commercial Court since the Navy and White had been placed under the protection of the latter after the disengagement. of King Street, the American investment fund.
By Thursday evening, the body should give a favorable opinion, like the DNCG, to the recovery plan of the former president and owner of the LOSC after a hearing which went "very well" according to a person close to the file. Then, the big maneuvers can finally begin for Gérard Lopez. Be it behind the scenes or in the field. Moreover, he will arrive this Thursday in Bordeaux with these teams. The closing, that is to say the transfer of securities, will take place from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon from the Château du Haillan. A press conference will be held at the end of the day. Members of the Scapular Club, which brings together more than 250 local entrepreneurs and whose form of financial participation in the buyout of the Girondins is not yet known, will also participate in this day.
🔴⚽️According to our information, the hearing before the commercial court “went very well” for the G.Lopez teams.
Decision expected Thursday.
Closing and formalization of the buyout of @girondins on Friday.
First speech in the wake.
#Bordeaux #Girondins #FCGB
- Clement Carpentier (@clementcarpet) July 21, 2021
Longuépée leaves with his check, Martin still a hypothesis
In the meantime, Frédéric Longuépée will have left his post as CEO of Marine et Blanc.
After months of conflict with the Ultramarines, the largest group of Bordeaux supporters, he will return his apron this Thursday during a board meeting scheduled for mid-afternoon.
But the former gymnast will not leave empty-handed.
As
20 Minutes
revealed
a few weeks ago, the new management will sign him a check for 500,000 euros in severance pay. The club will also have to pay the two million consulting fees of the former CEO since the beginning of April. A good slate for Girondins in great financial difficulty. For the moment, no other departure is planned and the restructuring plan of the club should arrive only in a second step in the fall. Gérard Lopez does not want to arrive at all with his big hooves.
So there won't be a lot of changes in the organization chart at this time.
The businessman only arrives with a new technical director, Admar Lopes.
The Portuguese will also put his bags in Gironde this Thursday.
For the position of general manager, Thomas Jacquemier currently in office and who has worked in recent weeks with the teams of the new owner will ensure the transition initially.
Subsequently, he could be replaced by Stéphane Martin.
If the former president of the Girondins has no news for the moment, there remains a hypothesis for Gérard Lopez in order to provide a local guarantee to the project.
Stéphane Martin is also very popular with Bordeaux supporters and known to be flexible and competent.
The executioner of France on the bench?
Another man should quickly leave the Girondins with a check. This is Jean-Louis Gasset. Even if Gérard Lopez has enormous respect for the trainer and the man, and his entourage repeats all the time that "nothing has been done at this stage", the current trainer of the Marines et Blanc will leave the ship : "It is very very unlikely that he will remain in office" advanced last weekend a close to the file at
20 Minutes.
Under contract until June 2022, the former assistant of Laurent Blanc should leave a check for 1.1 million euros. The new management will have to add a few thousand euros for the rest of the staff.
Who will replace him ? This is the big question of the moment. As often in this kind of situation, rumors and other speculations are rife. But according to information from
20 Minutes,
Vladimir Petkovic is in the sights of the Lopez-Lopes duo. The name of the current Switzerland coach is at the top of the pile, just above that of Joao Sacramento, José Mourinho's assistant at AS Roma. Those of David Guion and Lucien Favre are also part of a short-list as indicated by
L'Equipe.
"Vlado" was one of the heroes of the Nati during the victory in the round of 16 of the Euro a few weeks ago against France (3-3, 5 tab to 4).
Today, he has a huge rating on the market after having repositioned the Swiss selection on the European football chessboard since 2014. With him, Switzerland, it is three consecutive qualifiers to major tournaments, a participation in the "Final Four Of the 2019 Nations League and an average of 1.81 points per game.
No one has done better before him.
#Rediff Ligue 1: Sacramento burst the LOSC screen https://t.co/vOrAg50ovz pic.twitter.com/jkfEBmLTzU
- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) December 1, 2017
The 57-year-old Bosnian, naturalized Swiss, also has the advantage of speaking eight languages including French (Croatian, Bosnian, English, Spanish, German, Russian and Italian).
For the record, Gérard Lopez only talks about seven. There remains one difficulty in this case, and it is sizeable, Vladimir Petkovic is under contract with the Swiss selection until the end of 2021 (automatic extension until 2022 s' he had to qualify the Nati for the World Cup).
He must therefore find an agreement with his leaders before anything else if he really wants to join the Girondins.
Discussions are ongoing between all parties.
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Girondins de Bordeaux: Gérard Lopez will become owner of the club this Friday
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