While Le Havre supporters were anxiously awaiting the DNCG’s decision, HAC’s leaders already knew the fate reserved by the financial policeman of French football.
Highly dependent on TV rights, the Norman club, which is in uncertainty on this subject, has not been able to completely reassure the members of the DNCG who have therefore decided to impose a control on the payroll.
A lesser evil however, even if the Le Havre president, Jean-Michel Roussier, was cash and rather pessimistic by announcing in the columns of L’Equipe, that his sporting director Mathieu Bodmer, will not have any transfer window to recruit, and which he will therefore have to sell initially to hope to strengthen Didier Digard’s squad.
“For Le Havre, it’s the double kiss cool effect. (…) It’s 50% of the clubs’ budget. We know that we’ll never have amounts equivalent to those of last year. You’d have to be an idiot to think otherwise. So do you really imagine that I could maintain the payroll at the same level as last year? In the best of all possible worlds, our revenues will drop by 25 to 30%. And I’m still optimistic in saying that. I didn’t need the DNCG to reduce the payroll,” he declared before being blunt about the transfer window.
“In any case, there will only be transfers if there are sales. If there are no departures, there will be none. And as foreign clubs see the current problem with our TV rights, they are lowering their offers. This makes everything more complex.”
Didier Digard, who was appointed coach of Le Havre in place of Luka Elsner who joined Stade de Reims, will have to work with the current squad and hope that his group will not be deprived of important players.
It smells like a bad season, doesn’t it?
