After Lyon and Avignon, last year, it was the turn of Mende Lozère to disappear from the radar screens of professional volleyball. Promoted to League B during the 2022/2023 season, the only volleyball club in Lozère will not return to the professional level next year. Mende’s finances are indeed in the red and the Lozère leaders have taken stock, putting an end (?) to the adventure in the professional world.
In order to limit the damage, Mende had already given up on his training center this season. Despite this strategic option, Mende, where the former Nancy player Ali Kerboua plays, was still sanctioned a few months ago by the CACCP (commission for assistance and control of professional clubs of the LNV). Penalized by 5 points, Mende was even subject to a demotion measure as a precautionary measure.
In the public report recently released by the DNACG, we learn that, for the 2022/2023 financial year, Mende received €417,000 in subsidies from local authorities and €275,000 from private partnerships.
For comparison, the GNVB only received €335,853 of public money and sought €357,818 from partners (In the AF league, the VNVB received almost €903,000 from communities for €157,582 in private partnership). By having spent much more than was reasonable, Mende put himself in the red financially but also distorted the championship sportingly. Despite this breakdown in fairness, the Mendoise team was still able to compete in the play-offs, where they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Cannes. While, on the Mende side, a call for goodwill was launched to rebuild a new club, the disappearance of the current structure could allow Rennes to be drafted.
