“We are not looking to improve our balance sheet, we are looking to recover cash”, interview with the president of SC Bastia after the demotion of the club as a precautionary measure

While the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) pronounced the demotion of the Sporting Club de Bastia at the end of the season as a precautionary measure, the president of the club held a press conference. He wants to be reassuring and is working on solutions to recover money in order to fill this cash flow gap.

After this unpleasant surprise for the leaders of the Sporting Club de Bastia, it is time for reflection. The club’s deficit is estimated at 2.3 million euros.

Faced with this sum, the DNCG, the “financial policeman of French football“, responsible for verifying the accounts of professional clubs, issued three measures against the island club: “the demotion as a precautionary measure at the end of the current sporting season, the supervision of the payroll and the ban on recruiting as expensive.”

Following this decision, the president of Sporting responded to questions from France 3 Corse.

It’s not a hole, but it’s a “cash impasse.” This is a consequence of the investments that we were able to make and the sale of players carried out with deferred collections. Today we need 2.3 million euros. Are we going to fill it?

There are solutions we are working on to recover money, through collaboration with financial organizations. But it is certain that if we had received the TV rights that we were supposed to receive at the start of the season, we would not be in front of you at this time.

What are the solutions?

This can be an assignment of receivables, for example, on a player who has been sold, in this case Florian Bianchini, where we still have 1.9 million euros to collect. We can assign this debt. We are not considering selling players because this does not necessarily represent a financial solution.

We could sell a player, but if we have to negotiate with the club on the payment and it comes next season, it will not meet the current cash flow need. We are not looking to improve our balance sheet, we are looking to recover cash. It’s completely different.

Yes, of course. We can have players who can join us to invest in the club. We also wonder about the current model: is it the right one to continue? We did not wait for the DNCG’s decision to find out if new investors could come and join us as part of the club’s development.

We want to continue with a model that is cooperative and try to involve as many people as possible. Being more attractive, by saying “we have to be a closed-end company to bring in partners”, that would certainly be simpler.

But is this the model we should consider? I don’t know. This is a question that we have been asking ourselves within the board of directors for one or two years. It’s a thought that we have, but which has never really come to fruition. Today, this can be saving, but is it the right model for the future, for our environment and for our supporters?

Regarding the latest sanctions, what is your reaction to the match behind closed doors?

We are lucky to host Friday, but without our audience, it impacts us sportingly, but also financially. We will not have a ticket office, so this decision necessarily impacts us.

The measures are already taken, but we will strengthen them. We already have a security director who works with his deputies to ensure that everyone can come to the stadium safely, whether it is the players in the game or the public. It is about reinforcing these measures and having a certain pedagogy in order to make people understand that you cannot throw water or beer at a referee, because this is detrimental to the club.

Would you be ready to file a complaint by name?

If I have to, I will. I can’t let people do it who don’t allow the meeting to go through to the end. This goes against the club that I am leading. Putting nets today in the stadium in the foreground in front of our spectators is not what I want either. It’s difficult to make 10,000 spectators pay for the actions of one or two people.