AS Saint-Etienne : his memories of president, the sale of the club … Alain Bompard confides | ASSE News

Zapping Goal! Football club ASSE: the Greens’ tribute to Loïc Perrin

Goal ! : Alain Bompard, the reunion with your players whom you invited to your home in the Lubéron at the beginning of September must have brought back many memories …

Alain BOMPARD: Oh dear, what beautiful memories! I was postponed twenty years earlier. It was a dream day, extraordinary, strong in feelings and friendship. This group was a family, a real happiness.

What first came back to you from that time?

My first memory is that of men, the memory of Guy Lavaud who arrives with me in Saint-Étienne with Santo Domingo. We don’t have a plan, no money, it’s a gamble, but our friendship is so strong that we say to ourselves, “What can happen to us? Then there is the meeting with this man, to say the least particular, Gérard Soler, the technician, and with him everything became possible. These were completely crazy circumstances, however. With Guy Lavaud who was more than my brother, we had met the elected officials. They made us feel badly. Then, at 7 p.m., we went to the stadium. Pierre Repellini had opened the doors to us and we were seated in the gallery. And there, we said to each other “We never leave this house”.

What brought you to the presidency?

It all started with my links with Saint-Étienne. My wife is from Saint-Etienne, my son was born in Saint-Étienne and has always been fond of the Greens. Whenever I wanted to reward him for school results, he would say “Take me to see the Greens”. When I arrive in Saint-Étienne, he has just brilliantly passed the ENA and I tell myself that in a few weeks, he will explain life to me, but that if I succeed in this club, I will extend the relationship a bit father-son by making him understand that the father is not yet dead. That’s a lot of what drove me and of course my passion for football.

“Nobody wanted the club. All the rats were leaving the ship ”

Weren’t you afraid of this bet?

Ah, of course it is. I brought my whole family together and explained that their father and husband had gone mad and I didn’t know if I would be okay. I even thought I wouldn’t get out of it. They said, “It doesn’t matter if you lose the pennies you earned, you earned them. “But after a week at the club, Father Fayet (accountant) comes to see me to explain to me that there are payrolls to be made and that the banks are not keeping up. I ask him what to do and he tells me that’s what he expects of me. So we sold our family home. Yes, the fear I had and even until the last match of this first season, on May 8, 1998, in Lille where I felt the strain of the descent in the National. We had to win or at least draw a draw to hold on. We lose and it’s all over when suddenly I see my son Alexandre tumble from the stand, stumble and yell “We are saved”. I think he’s crazy, but no, Reginald Ray scored at the end of the match with Le Mans against Louhans. And it was Louhans who was coming down. I will never forget the name Reginald Ray.

You were talking about crazy circumstances when you arrived. Was it due to the club’s financial situation?

At the time, the leaders and elected officials were desperately looking for a buyer. Nobody wanted it. Our only competitor was Constantine who had put a knife to their throats and they could hardly play the top. All the rats were leaving the ship. When, later, I saw some swelling the pectorals, showing self-importance, it made me smile. They had demands but not the means to have them. Either they filed for bankruptcy or they accepted the only real offer they had, ours. There were “outstanding” personalities in the management of the club. For them, the issue was not filing for bankruptcy but our arrival. You would have had to be from Saint-Etienne to take over the club, why not by the way, but not come from outside. It was against nature.

What about the elected officials whom you said had received you badly?

I remember Pascal Clément, president of the general council (departmental today Editor’s note). He had asked Santo Domingo what his means were, and when he listed the companies owned by his family in Colombia and South America, Clément was pretending to sniff, alluding to drugs. Santo Domingo noticed this, suggested that he call the embassy to find out. It’s not a very big memory. There was also what happened at our second meeting. I slammed the door and Didier Degraewe (then the club’s chartered accountant) caught up with me in the hallway, saying “We need you”.

“Potillon took me by the shoulders and said to me” We are going to get you out of there President “”

How much then did you pay to take over the club?

We didn’t pay anything, but we paid off the liabilities. It was 43 million, but every time you opened a closet, you found a catastrophe. Suddenly, it was an agent who was not on the list of creditors who revealed that he had not received his commission promised by a former president. Catastrophic, yes, we can’t say anything else. Luckily, Gérard (Soler) sold Zoumana Camara to Milan then Grondin to Arsenal. There was also the arrival of Robert Nouzaret after the last match in Lille. He was able to add oil to the group we created. Then it all happened, the audience, the results, the arrival of sponsors, the TV rights which started to rise. We also managed a series of 22 games without defeat. The season premiere was in December in Guingamp.

Considering the evolution of football, do you think it would be possible today to take over a club under the same conditions as you did at ASSE?

It’s not impossible, maybe more difficult. I think it all starts with the players and I don’t know if with the madness of money they can keep their feet on the ground like their elders did. They weren’t making much, compared to today, but they had the love of their club with their coach, the president, the administrators. Me, when I had tears in my eyes after a defeat, there was Potillon who took me by the shoulders and said “We are going to get you out of this president”. I also remember Guillou calling his wife after the match in Lille and telling her “We have enough to eat next season. We stay in D1 ”. Now, with the money, it’s very complicated. The world has gone mad. Who will be able to stop PSG when they are launched? We have gone much too far. We should have regulated all of this at some point.

“If you are not accessible, the public charges you for it”

Are you still following Saint-Étienne’s results, and are you worried about the future?

I wouldn’t say that. Everything can go very quickly. The team is young and can find the rhythm, Puel the solutions and the right speech. What bothers me is that I can’t find an identity in this team. There are good players, but no identity. I felt it with Galtier’s team and with ours, even in the second division. The 30,000 supporters who came to the stadium all knew Sablé, Potillon, Guillou, even before the Brazilians. I was very careful with that and I would never have closed the doors to training for example, although sometimes it is not easy. People who come to see the players leave happy, with a photo, a signature. Football is a spectacle. At over 80 years old, Belmondo still replied “there is no problem” when asked for a picture. If you are not accessible, the public charges you for it.

There is a lot of talk about the sale of the club. Is this a topic you need to follow?

Not at all. No one asked me. Romeyer told me it was a possibility, but it depends on who you have in front of you. Having money is not enough. You have to invest totally, love the club and be good. The personality of the buyer is important and you need to invest 50 million if you want to have a team capable of finishing between fourth and sixth place. Higher would require enormous resources, but ASSE should not be lower. A good president is like a good coach. When Alain Perrin was fired, Philippe Masseguin told me that his assistant was better. Galtier is indeed an above average guy, a great trainer. On the bench, we see his anger, his joys. He is not neutral.

“Platini told me, ‘Go on Bompard, you are going to live the best years of your life. Saint-Étienne is unique “”

If a buyer asks you for advice?

If I have sympathy for him, I will help him, give him the codes that you have to know well in Saint-Étienne. It is a city unlike any other. People are different there, not as they are in the South, North or East. They are apart. I really loved them, and if you really love them, they can take you very high. They are a crowd of supporters capable of doing great things like in October 1998 with 90,000 spectators in three matches in one week, twice Gueugnon and then Valence.

What if it was a loved one who wanted to take over ASSE?

I will tell him “Yes, go for it”. Me, I had hesitated for a while and it was Platini who pushed me by saying to me, one day while having a coffee in a small village, after the funeral of a friend “Go Bompard, you. will live the best years of your life. Saint-Étienne is unique “

When we talk about loved ones, we of course think of your son Alexandre to whom Patrick Guillou gave a little wink on this subject?

It is the eternal story of substance and form. Alexander in a dream, would be so proud to take over from his father, but he has enormous responsibilities that cannot be left overnight. I’m not saying he never will, because I’m not sure. Later, maybe, when he has settled his situation … He would be able to find a partner, investors and be the leader. But today he is in another spiral, that of business, of economics. What is not debatable is his attachment to this city.

Interview conducted by Didier Bigard