Town hall looking to find buyer for Beziers

FALLEN French rugby giant Beziers – subject of a protracted takeover tale two years ago – is still officially on the market a year after the town hall saved it from professional extinction, mayor Robert Menard has revealed.

The council bought the 11-time French champions in 2021, a year after a convoluted takeover bid from a mysterious investor collapsed with ultimately tragic consequences for public-face-of-the-bid Christophe Dominici, to ensure its survival in France’s professional leagues.

“The town hall took over the club last year because it was necessary at the time to provide financial guarantees ... and keep the club in the ProD2,” Menard told Rugbyrama this week.

“If we hadn’t done it, Beziers would have disappeared from the professional rugby map within 24 hours, it’s as simple as that.”

Menard told the rugby website that the mairie had spoken to a number of potential investors in the past 12 months without being able to reach a deal for the club, which he said was now financially stable after years of uncertainty: “It took a year to clean up the finances but today, the club no longer has the slightest liability.”

But the town does not intend to hold on to its controlling stake in the club, which dominated French rugby in the 1970s and early 80s, in the long-term. “Never before has a city become the owner of a rugby club, but in my mind it is a transitional situation,” Menard said.

And he has promised, without going into details, that collective local subsidies for the club – currently running at €1.3million a year – would remain in place for the ‘first years’ after any new owner takes over.