In the memory of a professional rugby player, we have never seen a team forfeit a match. However, this is what threatens the Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (BOPB), on August 12, two weeks before its first match against Oyonnax in Aguiléra at the start of the Pro D2 season. None of the players is licensed with the French Rugby Federation as revealed by the daily Sud-Ouest. Indeed, the FFR is claiming €115,000 from the amateur sector. A sum that the BO Rugby Association refuses to pay. A gesture fully assumed by the office and its president, David Couzinet, who are demanding that the BOPB, professional sector, settle a debt of €316,000 in arrears from the previous three seasons : “As long as this sum is not paid, the licenses of the pros, only the pros, are blocked“. Consequence: the licenses of professional players are, for the time being, blocked.
The FFR and the LNR also in the viewfinder
This is an ultimatum to the BOPB and its president Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, but the FFR and the National Rugby League * (LNR) which manages pro rugby are also targeted by the president of amateur rugby David Couzinet: “They are also not doing their part of the job. We have a conciliation that has been underway since October, no one is moving, nor is taking responsibility for moving the lines, so yes, it’s an ultimatum. We had several levers of action, we could have denounced the non-respect of the agreement, we could have blocked the licenses of new players signed at the training center but we did not do it, so as not to put young people in difficulties nor the club in peril. It is also our way of asserting the rights of the association, of its licensees, and of defending it.“.
– Paul Nicolai
The BOPB, for its part, denies owing such a sum to the amateur and claims to have paid the amount of the licenses. He puts forward a “paid” invoice dated August 9 to prove his statements. A sum paid in December 2021 contradicts the amateur, which only covers professional sector licenses, but not the other unpaid ones. “In total, the club owes us nearly 316,000 euros, between the 2019-2020 licenses, the various royalties that bind the two entities by the agreement and other investments or services”. The president of the BOPB (professional sector), Jean-Baptiste Aldigé disputes these figures and ensures that for the 2019-2020 season, the FFR had decided to make the licenses free.
A new illustration of the conflict between the two entities of Biarritz Olympique. Without knowing what will happen by the end of the month, another episode is already planned : August 25, with the judgment on the merits of the Bayonne court concerning the attempted putsch of April 4 against the Galactics.
*Solicited, the NRL has not yet answered our questions.