News

Montauban president resigns

October 15 2008

Montauban's president Daniel Havis has handed in his resignation after the club's administrative council refused to accept his call for a judicial inquiry into the club's accounts under former president Patrick Bardot.

A recent audit of Montauban's financial situation, headed by Havis, revealed that the Tarn club were 1.3m Euros short of balancing their books after horribly overspending their budget last season.

It seems the Montauban fairy-tale is turning into a nightmare. After coming within four minutes of causing one of the biggest upsets the Heineken Cup has ever seen on their European debut, the French club is faced with a massive battle to save their skin.

Currently lying tenth in the Top 14, Montauban will have to present their books before the French league's financial watchdogs, the DNACG on Wednesday.

Despite promises form the political leaders of the Tarn-et-Garonnais Department to find a solution to save the club, a demotion to the ProD2 is on the cards more than ever.

Another French club, Albi, suffered the same fate at the end of last season despite miraculously finding the funds to balance their books at the last minute.

Meanwhile, Bourgoin president and majority shareholder Pierre Martinet has announced that he would be willing to sell "50 or 51 per cent of the club" to someone willing to invest 2m Euros in the struggling Top 14 outfit.

Martinet, who has been at the helm since 1996, is clearly fed up with the mediocre performances of the club of late and wants to bail out. Bourgoin are languishing in twelfth place in the Top 14 - a far cry from their appearance in the final in 1997.