Bourg-de-Péage Drôme Handball is in crisis. Financial crisis and management crisis. Nearly 400 to 450 thousand euros are missing from the coffers and the city that subsidizes the association requested a financial audit last fall for the 2019/2020 period. The conclusions of this audit were unveiled this Wednesday, February 2 at the Town Hall in the presence of the new office of the association.
Mayor Nathalie Niéson would like to point out that the KPMG firm in charge of the audit could not have access to all the necessary accounting documents. Which seems to reveal, according to her, a form “amateurism” in the management of the club at this time: “There were great administrative and financial weaknesses at that time, and objectively a real difficulty in being able to access the accounting documents. The supporting documents that the KPMG firm needed to be able to carry out the audit easily, either they did not exist, either they were not accessible, and some managers did not respond to requests, which means that we have a partial view of the situation”.
She recalls that she launched this audit in the fall when theformer president of the association revealed that he could not present the accounts and that he wished to cease his duties.
The town hall having subsidized the association to the tune of 85,000 euros, it was necessary to verify what this public money had become. Hence the desire for the financial audit. But this audit concerns only the association. However, since December 2019 there have been two different structures in the club. To simplify, we find the association which manages the training of young people and the 300 licensees and an SAS (private sports company) created especially to manage the pro team since December 2019. The town hall has no link with the SAS and therefore no account information.
Agreement broken
What is certain, however, is that these two separate entities are expected to work hand in hand. But since September, they tear each other apart and Since January all links are broken. The new president of the association Cathy Carvalho explains: “there was a management agreement between the association and the SAS, it had to be validated by the prefecture. It never really was”. And the accounts of the two structures sometimes seem to have been a little “confused”. The new president details: “certain charges were borne by the association” when they should have been paid by the private company. The salaries of pro players, for example: this money would have been wrongly taken from the association’s accounts. For Cathy Carvalho, the SAS should thus 317 thousand euros to the association.
Why did things turn out this way? Why this mixture of genres in accounting? Why did the SAS not pay the charges that were incumbent on it? Why such a deficit? The new office of the association does not manage to obtain any response.
Precisely, that was the big problem when we arrived, we asked for explanations, we asked for documents, we wanted to shed light on it and we were never answered. – Cathy Carvalho the president of the association
The young woman continues: “Has the club lived beyond its means so far? Certainly, that’s all I can tell you about that. And that’s why _today, we are in conflict._“
– Nathalie de Keyzer
Since January 1, the new president of the association has terminated the management agreement with the SAS. “We are completely taking over the management of the pro team”. We will also have to find new patrons to balance the budget since the SAS does not give any news.
The club’s budget for this year is 2.4 million euros. If the finances are not cleaned up quickly, the financial policeman of the hand federation could impose relegation on the Drôme club. An event that no one wants in Bourg-de-Péage “but if we have to go through it to clean things up, we will do it” assures Cathy Carvalho death in the soul.
We will continue to support
Nathalie Niéson promises that the city will do its utmost to support the association and the club, but not under any conditions: “The first team, we are the first to be very proud of them, to support them and to marvel at the results they have on the pitch. However, the Bourg de Péage Drôme HandBall association is also the 300 It is a sports club of Bourg de Péage, so we will continue to work with this association, with the new governance, the new president, the new office and the whole question will be: to what extent? in what context? we will be able to continue to accompany them, if possible to support the first team.”
“But the City will only be supporting the professional financial aspect. It is absolutely necessary to find a healthy financial situation. We must potentially find new partners, a new dynamic and we will continue to help the club on this condition and we will put the cursor where we need to put it according to the agreement of objectives that we will sign and the relationship of trust that we have with them.”
Contacted by the editorial staff of France Bleu Drôme Ardèche, the president of the SAS did not respond.
Bad news rarely comes alone, the handball players from Bourg-de-Péage lost their first game of the season at home on Wednesday evening. The Drôme were beaten 34/30 by Nantes.