The former Springbok was part, with Shaun Hegarty and Marc Baget, of the trio who took over the Basque club last April.
Last April, Olympic Biarritz changed direction, relying on a trio made up of two former local players Shaun (Hegarty and Marc Baget) and an ex-Springbok (Flip Van der Merwe) to turn the page on the years Gave-Aldigé, marked more by scandals than by sporting performances. This summer, Flip Van der Merwe left his place as chairman of the board of directors of the BO to Arnaud Dubois. This Thursday, the former international second row (37 caps between 2010 and 2015) who passed through Clermont, with whom he was French champion in 2017, announced that he was leaving the Basque club.
“In life, as in rugby, too many cooks spoil the sauce and through certain recent strategic decisions, I no longer align myself with the values of management”he explained in a post published on X. Adding: “I am therefore withdrawing from my financial and managerial responsibilities, convinced that it is in the interest of the club. (…) I leave the club in a better position than I found it.
Shaun Hegarty, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, reacted to this departure in a press release: “During its last Supervisory Board meeting, Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque took note of the resignation of Flip Van Der Merwe as a member of the management board. On behalf of the Club and personally, I would like to thank Flip for his investment during the transition and the initial work to improve the living conditions of the players. New projects call Flip today and we all wish him well in his future endeavors.” Before the reception at Aurillac on Friday (7:30 p.m.) on the occasion of the 12th day, the BO is 4th in the Pro D2 ranking.
Flip Van der Merwe, at the head of several businesses based in Biarritz, was present at the last Tour de France, as director of Moviatech, a subsidiary of Lojelis, a start-up which offers innovative digital technological solutions to facilitate the use of hydrogen vehicles. Four blue vehicles supported by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region – intended to promote the soft mobility of tomorrow and hydrogen – were present on the Tour. “The decarbonization of the Tour de France caravan has been a real issue in recent years and we wanted to show the public that there are ways to develop this type of mobility», he explained to Figaro.
Morocco
