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Author of a solid first part of the season (5th), promoted Poitevin welcomes Bordeaux this Saturday at 6:00 p.m. After two postponed matches, Poitiers will finally be able to launch its 2025 year at home. The president of the club, Philippe Nabe, looks back at the end of 2024 and the project of the club of the city of 100 bell towers.
WebGirondins: what is your assessment of this first part of the season?
Philippe Nabe: On a sporting level, it is a success, but it is not an end in itself. So, if we have to take stock of the mid-season, it is obviously satisfactory. But we must not fall asleep, the second part of the season will be even more decisive and we will have to be present to hold out over the long term. The objective of the season remains to maintain, but I want to say that depending on the evolution of the championship and the ranking, we will readjust our objectives.
“Hosting Bordeaux requires us to do more work in terms of security”
Is hosting the Girondins de Bordeaux an additional organizational challenge?
It takes more work. We are not used to managing such a flow. There is already a fairly large number of supporters. We expect supporters to come from everywhere. And then there is the relational context between the two groups of supporters.
This requires us to do more work in terms of security. We are working hard with the volunteers, the prefecture, the Town Hall. The two prefectures of Gironde and Vienne are linked.
How can we define the sporting context in the city of Poitiers with strong competition (volleyball, basketball)?
The context is not always favorable, because local authorities have less and less money. The private partners are shared between the high-level sports of basketball and volleyball, but also football. The context today is not entirely favorable due to strong competition from professional clubs on private partnerships.
We make do, but it's true that there is enormous potential. It’s a big provincial town and there’s a love for football. And this is an important point that we try to build on. People really love football in Poitiers and it's been a long time since we gave them an adequate level worthy of the city. We see it against the Girondins de Bordeaux this weekend, the stadium will be full. The potential is there, but it takes time. The climb to N2 also helped us.
A city like Poitiers, when you look at the size of this city, its geographical location, it is a city which must at least be in National status for the long term.
“In terms of our training to be able to claim a strong status in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, we will need a team of young people at the national level.”
The training center could also be a direction that the club could take?
This is the direction we have taken for a while, investing in training. We see it in our squad, we have a lot of young people who are trained at the club with veterans who have played at this level or above. We have to operate like that.
-Because if we don't operate like that, we would have to enter into financial competition with the big N2 clubs and we don't have that possibility. And even if in the future, we must evolve at a higher level, it will be the orientation to rely on training and youth.
Does the fact that there is no longer a training center in New Aquitaine after the falls of Bordeaux and Niort this summer impact your club? On the attraction that the region could have football-wise?
The first problem is that we do not have a youth team at national level (U17 or U19). So, to attract is more complicated. In terms of our training to be able to claim a strong status in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, we will need a team of young people at the national level.
But also to have the first team that can move up a level in the future. This would allow us to be able to train young people who aspire to play at a high level. Today, we are losing our young people too soon. They go to a pre-training center at 13-14 years old. But for those who stay. When we were in N3, we had them stolen by N2 or National clubs.
If we manage to remain an N2 club or, in the future, a National club, this will allow us to go further in the training process.
The club has experienced some financial difficulties in the past. What strategy has been put in place to maintain a certain stability in a championship where income is almost non-existent?
Like any club without income such as TV rights, we stick out our tongues a little to make ends meet. And that can create cash flow problems at some point in the season. So, today, we work with a safety mattress to give ourselves a little more oxygen in daily management.
We don't have 36,000 solutions at our level. Local authorities must support us and private partnerships (patronage, sponsorship) must believe in our project. These are the two main entrances that we have as a club. And if we don't have that, it's very difficult to exist in N2, because these are large budgets.
How much is the cost estimated for a season in N2?
We are around 950,000 euros at Stade Poitevin.
Nathan Hanini
To read >> Training: without injured Andy Carroll, the Girondins prepare before Poitiers
