FCSM General Manager Samuel Laurent was the guest of Hervé Blanchard and Jean Sureda in 100% FCSM Monday
, before the match against ASSE. Asked about the club’s budgetary guidelines, he confirms that the club’s Chinese shareholder, the Nenking Group, has invested “more than 10 million euros” to balance the budget before going before the DNCG (National Directorate of Control and Management), the financial policeman of French football. A positive signal for supporters who questioned the shareholder’s support for the FCSM.
“More than 10 million for the DNCG”
The FCSM budget was not up to par, even with the sale of Alan Virginius to LOSC
(Lille) for 4 million euros in August. “We know that there is a deficit to be filled each year and it is illusory to think that sales of Alan Virginius at 4 million can fill a deficit. We know that with TV rights today, sponsorship in Ligue 2, we are always very, very far from the mark. We do not trade, we try to balance a minimum when possible and when there is an opportunity. Alan had no place to improve the team in Ligue 2 more because he was really a player cut out for Ligue 1. We sold him, but it was not a marketing operation”he insists.
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10 million euros is not nothing. This is a real signal sent to the supportersto reassure them about the presence of the Chinese shareholder alongside the FCSM. “It’s a signal that is likely to repeat itself”says Samuel Laurent. “If we don’t go up this year, we will need other investments, and we have always been present at club level and when we have to put in money, we put it in.”
Plan for both scenarios
“We are in a situation where we must anticipate both a reinforced Ligue 2 budget, if however we do not manage [à monter en Ligue 1], and a Ligue 1 budget”, declares Samuel Laurent. Clearly stated objective being to go back to Ligue 1
, the budget will necessarily have to be adjusted. Have to consider factors that the FCSM was not concerned with so far. “It requires anticipating both players and profiles. It also requires anticipating a transfer policy, which is not done in Ligue 2. Well, not a lot. We did not have this constraint. It represents huge budgets”he says.
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The Managing Director confirms his desire to maintain, even “to reinforce” the budget if the yellow and blue remain in Ligue 2 next year. But the goal is indeed the rise in Ligue 1, and you have to prepare for it financially. For Samuel Laurent, it would be “illusory and dangerous to think that we could be satisfied with a small budget at the bottom of the Ligue 1 table, it would be ridiculous”