• Despite good results on the pitch in its first season in the second national level, the BBL was forced to stop the activity of its professional team.
  • Jean-Paul Onillon denounces a "lack of support" from communities. The former president of the club particularly points the finger at the city of Bruges, which, according to him, has not done enough to help the club find funding.
  • A few days after the launch of the campaign "so much sport to share" by the city of Bordeaux, this news is stained.

"It's a mix between anger and disgust." After the announcement of the end of the professional adventure of Bordeaux-Bruges-Lormont, Jean-Paul Onillon, now ex-president of this handball club, appears largely bitter. And for good reason, it's been a few days since the BBL formalized on its networks "the end of (his) professional team". This is not the fault of insufficient sports results to maintain its status. It is rather on the side of "political lies and broken promises" that we must look to find the culprit, according to the official statement.

Promoted to the Proligue (the equivalent of the second division) last season, the BBL ends the year with an honorable eighth position in a pool that has 16 formations. "Initially, we had the ambition to maintain ourselves," rewinds Jean-Paul Onillon. We did it more than easily, since if we had not had the 4 penalty points (imposed by the CNACG last March following violations of the NHL's financial regulations), we would have been qualified for the play-off and therefore still in the race for a potential rise in the first division. »

Even if he readily admits the utopianism of such a hypothesis, Jean-Paul Onillon points to the lack of support from communities. "When we look at Nantes or Montpellier, who are regularly in the Champions League, we see that they can benefit from support from cities or metropolises," regrets the former Parisian leader.

A club and communities passing the buck

In Bordeaux, Jean-Paul Onillon says he was not so lucky. "If I benchmark all the proligue clubs, the average subsidy is between €650 and €700,000. We, in pure subsidy, we got € 120,000 from the Region and the department". Nothing from the municipalities that the club represented and the metropolis. Widely blamed, the mayor of Bruges, Brigitte Terraza, explains that she has been transparent since the beginning of the project: "From the beginning, I announced that the city could not help the club. And the metropolis does not have the sports competence and has never wanted to take it. On the other hand, to accompany them and make the room available, yes, of course. »

The support then had to take another form, and the club asked for a list of companies and potential partners, in order to find the necessary funding. Terraza defends itself: "I provided a list of companies, and Jean Touzeau, the mayor of Lormont, did the same. But with Covid-19, everyone has reduced the wing and money is scarce. I wasn't going to call business leaders, harass them or whatever. That's not my way of doing things and I don't want to be accountable. I did what I was asked. »

Efforts "insufficient" for Jean-Paul Onillon, who then turned to the metropolis to ask for exceptional help, "which was able to benefit the football club Girondins de Bordeaux". But again, the club does not receive the expected support. Contacted by 20 Minutes, the city states that "no sports club in the city benefits from a direct subsidy from BM. It is not possible to set a precedent without any justification other than the finding of a budget deficit as a result of a misestimation of revenues. And justifies the exceptional aid granted to the Girondins de Bordeaux: "FCGB is the resident club of the Matmut stadium and as such, it owes a fee to BM. The payment of this fee has been staggered but its amount remains due. It is therefore in no way a subsidy to the club. Faced with these refusals, Jean-Paul Onillon regrets that "high-level sport in Bordeaux is not a priority".



"We need to do more for sport"

However, it has been a few days since the town hall of the Gironde capital launched its communication campaign "So much sport to share". If football, rugby or the Tour de France were widely discussed during the speech of the mayor and his deputy in charge of sports, Mathieu Hazouard, handball was obviously one of the great forgotten of this campaign. At least in the speech, since the BBL did not make an appearance in the speech of the two elected officials at the time of the congratulations. An oversight "quite involuntary", according to the Bordeaux assistant.

The latter adds: "This is a file that I follow daily since the beginning, it is deeply unfortunate that the adventure ends there. " Before defending himself against the accusations launched against the communities, and recalling that the city of Bordeaux "allowed the club to play Jean Dauguet" at a time when he was looking for a room that could accommodate him after his rise in the Proleague. "Now the fundamental issue is that we need to do more for sport," he concludes. In the meantime, Bordeaux will have to wait before tasting handball at a very high level again.

  • Bordeaux
  • New Aquitaine
  • Aquitaine
  • Gironde
  • Sport
  • Handball
  • Local authorities
  • Town hall
  • Department
  • Region
  • Subsidies