Pace of banner. No large gatherings. No speeches. No flowers, no wreaths sent by Joe Da Grosa, Brian Higgins or Gérard Lopez, successive owners of a company almost wiped off the map by six years of irrational management. “That’s the worst part. You have employees who have more than 20 years in the company who are going to close the door to their office this evening, and there will be no one to say a word to them, to greet them,” slips one of them. “There wasn't a thank you,” said another, who left her native region 16 years ago because she wanted to work for the Girondins. “I thought I would end my career there. »
This Tuesday, November 5 will remain a significant moment in the page of history that is turning at the Bordeaux club, with the abandonment of professional status and the entry into legal receivership. Sad coincidence, on the eve of the anniversary of the sale of the club by M6 to the American investment funds GACP and King Street (November 6, 2018), almost all of the 82 employees on permanent contracts (CDI) affected by the social plan have definitively left the club.
In total, including professional players or apprentices under contract, some 180 people will have been pushed out since July 26
In fact, a party had already moved away from Château du Haillan for several weeks, accepting an exemption from activity on functions that had become empty in N2 and without a training center. Around ten staff representatives will leave in the second half of November. Around ten educators on fixed-term contracts (CDD) received their dismissal email on Thursday. In total, including professional players or apprentices under contract, some 180 people will have been pushed out since July 26.
Chocolates and barbecue
This Tuesday morning, the ride looked like a departure evening on a site that was already almost deserted. Employees, alone or in groups by department or affinities, walked the aisles coming to greet each other. Those who are busy preparing for Saturday's match against Saint-Pryvé have taken on their task until the end. Some, who left Thursday evening, came to sign their papers. In civilian clothes or with the club colors: “we are proud of this badge” says one of them. Anonymous people and a legend: Patrick Battiston, three-time French champion as a player with the club, sports director then head of a successful training center, began his 40th season in Navy and White.
Earlier, the reserve team players had prepared breakfast in the football school clubhouse for the site's management and logistics employees, offering everyone a box of chocolates. Those from N2 had lunch with employees linked to the life of the team. Members of logistics organized a barbecue where administrative staff took part. The Social and Economic Committee (CSE) has planned an evening off-site this Wednesday with all employees who wish. Like a return to the past.
“The Girondins were a family: we had evenings here, with the players, their families. The Christmas trees were awesome. And from one day to the next… The last meetings with the HR director, the only things they talked about was money” says this employee who points out her bitterness at the discovery of the salaries revealed in “Sud Ouest”: “We are being said no to the slightest increase. They were very happy to find us, but for what recognition? “.
Triaud, the link
They do not know what their future will hold, preparing to first rely on compensation to regenerate themselves. “It’s time for this to end.” But it’s not easy to live with,” continues the employee. “The positive thing is that we’re leaving this mess behind. The negative is the bitterness of seeing how this club was brought there” says a future ex-colleague (13 years at the club). “It’s a part of our life that stops. Today it's hard; tomorrow it’s going to be terrible” points out another, 17th year on the scene. His partner wants to be positive: “we will bounce back”.
Vice-president since this summer, Arnaud De Carli was busy in the middle to prepare for the future. “We don’t know him” tackles an employee. A face, emerging from the training locker room, is much more so: Jean-Louis Triaud, historic president (1996 to 2017) and since August at the head of the association which oversees all the teams up to the N3, came to take stock of the new operation of site management by Bordeaux town hall.
“We all hope that things will start again,” says an employee. But no one could say this Tuesday that this is the end of the fall.
