“It's a complete failure, it's atrocious.” Nicolas Ruffino is direct when he talks about the state of the Dijon stadium. The president and the lawyer of the association were this Friday, November 8, before the Dijon judicial court to ask his placement in receivership. The professional rugby club, in cessation of payments, was liquidated a month ago, on October 8.
The association will not suffer the same fate. In any case, not immediately. The court ruled this Friday, November 8 in favor of the judicial recovery procedure. A breath of fresh air which therefore offers the Dijon stadium a six-month reprieve, against the backdrop of the hope of a new start in Federal 2 next year. “The goal is to keep the strong forces who are at the club today and who can easily join a Federale 2 project from next year.” explains Emmanuel Chevassu, former player at the Dijon stadium from 1998 to 2013, expected to be one of the buyers of the association. “We have a reservoir of promising players who will be able to make the first team from the 2025-2026 season“, he said.
A solid recovery project
But we must not declare victory too soon. Six months will quickly pass and at that time a new deadline will come for the association. Judicial liquidation is therefore not completely ruled out, it is the court which will decide. For Emmanuel Chevassu, it would be a huge blow, which would result in the departure of the hopeful and a fall in Regional 1. “We would start lower than zero because in Regional 1, there are some who will leave and everything will have to be rebuilt. If we take this direction, it will take at least ten years to put the Dijon stadium back where it could be from next year “, he worries.
To avoid this descent into hell, Emmanuel Chevassu and two other former club players, Anthony Grand and Rémy Cabus, took matters into their own hands and presented a project to take over the association. It was on this project that the argument was based during the hearing, which was clearly convincing. The group of former players has opened crowdfunding at the start of the week. For now, “it's a little difficult to take off“, they admit. Objective: to show that the association is supportedanchored in the Dijon sporting landscape, and that it is solid. “The prize pool concretely materializes an interest in the club. We also understand people's caution with what has happened in recent years. For me, it's the number that will do. It's not the amount. We prefer to have ten donations at €20 than a single donation at €200“, says Emmanuel Chevassu. “It was to solicit former players who have passed through the stadium to bring a little vision, weight to our investment and to our vision of what we wish to put in place for the club. “
The wish for a rugby that brings together
The stated ambition: to unite again around rugby. “We want to bring people together on our project“, confirms Emmanuel Chevassu. He explains that they started to worry about the association just before the club was liquidated. “We approached the entire board of directors to offer our help and try to get the club out of the rut because there weren't many people at the stadium in September.“, he laments. “We wanted to help as former players to give our project, because we see that there are a lot of partners. But even the supporters were no longer in the stadium, the stadium was empty. So we wanted to help. What we were told quite quickly was that if we didn't have funds, we weren't taken seriously, despite all the desire and determination we had.“, specifies the former player.
Emmanuel Chevassu and Rémy Cabus want to be reassuring. They advocate “a new vision of the stadium.”And hope that everything goes as planned.”Those who will get back around the table from the 2025-2026 season will only be new people, new faces at all levels. This is what we want to bring: a new freshness, a new impetus to rebuild the stadium of tomorrow over the next ten years“, they argue. The probable future buyers are banking on a project”pragmatic“, with the desire to “build on solid“. To do this, they rely in particular on the training of players.
In any case, Nicolas Ruffino, the president of the association, turns the page. He will resign soon, following an extraordinary general meeting.
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