Rugby Pro D2: a new president for Béziers and a foreign buyer announced

Hervé Billaud entend gérer le club dans la continuité de Jean-Michel Vidal. – ASBH

Hervé Billaud, the boss of the company Sietel Midi Télécom, succeeds Jean-Michel Vidal as head of the ASBH board of directors. Robert Ménard also explains that a "foreign buyer" is in the running. A memorandum of understanding has been signed. The file is in the hands of the Rugby Regulatory Authority (formerly DNACG), the financial policeman of the League.

Hervé Billaud, the boss of the company Sietel Midi Télécom is the new chairman of the board of ASBH. He succeeds Jean-Michel Vidal who officially sent his resignation to Robert Ménard at the end of last week. Everything then happened very quickly, explains the mayor: “Tuesday, August 13, at 11 a.m., there was a meeting of the supervisory board that acknowledged the resignation of Jean-Michel Vidal. It is this board that appoints the chairman of the board. And so Hervé Billaud was elected.”

“I love this club”

The supervisory board has five members. Hervé Billaud, who has been a member for around fifteen years, has therefore agreed to step up to the plate: “I was asked to do it and I did it in the interest of the club, because I love it, says the boss of the company Sietel Midi Télécom, a historic partner of ASBH, bluntly. It was impossible to leave it without a president, I couldn't let it down. I know it very well. It's not a question of ego. I've been a partner since 1986. I know what it cost me personally. However, I made it clear to the mayor that it would be an interim, for a maximum of six months.” The interim lasted four 4 years for his predecessor…

"Not to revolutionize everything"

The head of the company announces not wanting "to revolutionize everything". He intends to manage the club in the continuity of the work carried out by Jean-Michel Vidal, for four years: "I will manage the current affairs, specifies the adopted Béziers resident for 40 years. All decisions will be taken as has been the case until now by Jean-Michel Vidal, that is to say collegially."

Hervé Billaud was officially presented to the players by Pierre Caillet, Tuesday evening after the friendly match against Narbonne (36-14). This Wednesday, August 14, during the presentation of the players during the Feria, at the bodega des arènes, he will make his first official speech. He is already brimming with enthusiasm: “I have been president for just over 24 hours and I already have a victory”, he smiled late Wednesday morning.

A foreign group in the running for the takeover of the club

In the coming weeks, the new president should see a buyer for the club arrive: “Last week, we signed a memorandum of understanding with a foreign group, explains Robert Ménard. On Tuesday afternoon, we sent the file to the Rugby Regulatory Authority (ex-DNACG), the financial watchdog of the National Rugby League. It is they who will validate or not the purchase of the club. We have been talking with the leaders of this group for months. The purchase of the club has indeed been going on for a long time, the transition has been long. I feel like I have done my part of the job and fortunately Jean-Michel Vidal and Michaël Guedj were there. We saved the club. If we hadn't been there, it wouldn't be in Pro D2 anymore."

Financially, ASBH can boast of having healthy accounts: "This is the first time in years, at least since I became mayor of Béziers, that the club hasn't lost money, rejoices Robert Ménard. Administratively, everything is clear."

Enough to seduce this foreign group whose name is, for the moment, kept secret.

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