Auditioned by the CNOSF with a file considered “complete and structured”, Sochaux will be fixed this Tuesday

2023-07-31 21:05:49

The Sochaux supporters hold their breath. But hope has returned for the club founded in 1928 threatened with bankruptcy due to the inconsistency of its Chinese owners, the Nenking group. Romain Peugeot, great-grandson of the club’s founder, a 33-year-old financier based in London, has worked tirelessly for three weeks to find a solution and the 12 million euros requested by the DNCG. This Monday, before the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), for a little over an hour by videoconference, he defended with his lawyers a file which they considered “structured, solid, complete and sufficient”. “Romain has raised the requested funds,” explained someone close to the file on the Est Républicain site.

Frankie Yau, president of Sochaux, Nenking version, also took part in this meeting, as did Charles Demouge, mayor of Sochaux and Damien Meslot, president of the Greater Belfort urban community. They ensured the financial support of local authorities for the takeover project. The Belfort conurbation undertook to contribute one million euros to the rescue of the club and it also lifted the obligation for the club to pay it 1.5 million euros for the purchase of land to be used for the construction of a performance center. An online kitty, launched by the Sociochaux association, had gathered on its side Monday evening nearly 140,000 euros.

Annecy in the waiting room

After an initial agreement for 4 million euros with Romain Peugeot who had raised 8 million euros, the Nenking group finally withdrew this weekend. Yet another twist and another abandonment by the Chinese owners. Romain Peugeot has therefore bought their shares for a symbolic euro and therefore finds himself alone on board.

Faced with the conciliator of the CNOSF, the representatives of the DNCG explained what had motivated them to retrograde Sochaux in National. The absence of Nenking during the appeal examination, on July 11, would really not have been to the taste of the financial policeman of French football.

The Sochaux file will now be studied in detail with an expected response “by Tuesday at the end of the day”, as Damien Meslot indicated. The opinion of the CNOSF is merely advisory. But if it is favorable, a Comex of the FFF will meet urgently, certainly before Friday, to reintegrate or not Sochaux in L2. According to various sources, Sochaux would, in this case, very likely be maintained. The season resuming this Saturday August 5, Sochaux will certainly be exempt from the 1st day if the decisions are favorable to him. The fate of Annecy, placed for the moment neither in L2 nor in National, also depends on that of Sochaux.