Fabrice Bocquet gave his first interview to Nice-Matin and L’Équipe since taking office as President of OGC Nice. Selected excerpts.

"WE CHOSE TO PROTECT THE CLUB"

“The context of French football is difficult with the sharp drop in TV rights, so we have to adapt. Then there’s the life of a transfer window, when sometimes there are unexpected events. That added to the economic complexity. We had four medical situations that meant we couldn’t complete certain transfers. Königsdörffer and others (he refuses to name them due to medical confidentiality). We could have forced certain situations, but we chose to protect the club, unlike some decisions made in the past. In the end, when you look at the outcome, we landed on our feet, but it wasn’t easy.”

 

BALANCE BETWEEN PURCHASES AND SALES

For two years in a row now, we’ve had a net positive balance of €30 million between sales and purchases. That hasn't happened by chance, it’s an extremely clear internal objective. Beyond the sales made, you also have to look at what we invested (€30 million). Almost double last summer (€17 million). Why? Because we were able to increase the value of certain players. The main concern was to build the best possible squad within a given economic framework.”

 

AN UNSUSTAINABLE MODEL

Fabrice Bocquet is beginning his fourth season at OGC Nice. Now President, he intends to continue the work previously carried out as CEO to clean up the finances, strengthen the internal structures and help the club grow. His ambition is continuity and stability in an extremely unfavourable economic context, despite INEOS’s constant support:

“At first, I thought I had joined a state shareholder and not a corporate shareholder, given the amounts (well over €100 million) that Ineos had to invest every summer just for the club to get through the year. That model was not viable... And all this comes in a catastrophic context with TV rights.”

 

"THE IMPACT OF THE DROP IN TV RIGHTS IS CATASTROPHIC"

“Two years ago, the club received €30 million in TV rights; last year, it was €15 million; this year, it will be €8 million,” he recalls. “The impact is catastrophic. We’re back to TV rights levels lower than in the 2000s. French clubs are by default very dependent on transfers. They all have significant operating deficits. So, they must make up for these losses with transfers, aiming for a positive balance. But this gap only keeps growing year after year because of the collapse in TV rights. So, in fact, we’re only compensating for losses and on top of that, we have Ineos’s help. Because Ineos invested over €30 million this summer. Without that €30 million, you don’t have a recruitment budget (…) Our objective is to reduce our wage bill and maintain good sporting performance, also by bringing through academy players. We have a very good example with the sale of Evann Guessand. We’re on the right track.”

 

"WE DON’T REALISE THE EFFORT PUT IN"

A “right track” that hasn’t spared him from criticism. “As Ferran Soriano (CEO of City Group) says, being at a football club is like being a fish in an aquarium. Everyone watches, and everyone judges. I’m not complaining about it.” Understandably more exposed today (“because Jean-Pierre (Rivère), given what he represented, was a formidable lightning rod”), Fabrice Bocquet explains that in his role as CEO (which he held for three years), “you say no more often than yes - that’s part of the job. Scaling back is a request I consider legitimate (…) We’ve reduced the club’s cash requirement by more than threefold in three years. People don’t realise the effort put in. The economic model was very dangerous. But cutting costs will never be a strategy. It’s a necessary step. We must be smart. We’re still investing: we just replaced a pitch at the training ground for €700,000. We’ve changed things at the stadium to improve the sense of belonging, we’re putting €30 million into the transfer market. We continue to maintain a strong performance structure.”

 

RELATIONSHIP WITH MANCHESTER UNITED
 

This summer saw heavy movement between Chelsea and Strasbourg (both part of the same group). Not so between Manchester United and OGC Nice. “Last year, we couldn’t do anything simply because we were competing in the same European competition, the Europa League,” explains Bocquet. “UEFA’s initial rules were that no transactions could be made between clubs across multiple transfer windows, including the one that just ended. Finally, in June, UEFA relaxed this rule. Except it wasn’t expected at all, unlike Chelsea and Strasbourg who had been working on this multi-club partnership for a long time. Chelsea come off a season where they finished in the Champions League and won the Club World Cup, while Manchester are in a rebuilding season. They’re focused on bouncing back short term. The multi-club project will develop. Not like Strasbourg-Chelsea, it will be a different model. I have no reason to believe it won’t happen, because it’s in everyone’s interest.”

 

INEOS

“I asked Ineos to speak up to clarify and show that there is no ambiguity about their position. I’m like Saint Thomas, I believe what I see. And what I see is that financially, Ineos has always strongly supported us. Since Jean-Claude Blanc arrived, they’ve let us work in a healthy environment.”

 

TOWARDS A SALE OF THE CLUB?

“To my knowledge, no, but you’ll have to ask Ineos’s representative (Jean-Claude Blanc is expected to speak soon). I’ve been hearing talk about a sale for months. Just like in Monaco, Toulouse, Angers... That doesn’t mean these clubs can’t move forward. What I see is a shareholder that protects the club financially and lets people work. Those are already two boxes checked, which is quite rare.”

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE POP’ SUD

"We met them recently. The most important thing is to say things, even the ones we don’t do well. Trust not only takes time, but it’s fragile. It’s never a given, so it has to be built, with humility.”

 

BEING DIRECT AND AUTHENTIC

Asked by Nice-Matin about the “compatibility” of his personality “with a southern club like Nice,” Fabrice Bocquet stressed authenticity: “I grew up in Paris but also in Colombia, which is quite Latin in culture. I’m married to a South American, our home language is Spanish. My role is to adapt, with my personality, which may fit the region in some respects and less in others. I don’t see it as a weakness, it’s just a fact. What matters most are our values: being direct, showing authenticity.”

NICE IN THE INSTITUTIONS

Driven by the desire to give Nice a national dimension and a voice within institutions, Fabrice Bocquet is a candidate to join the LFP Board of Directors: “It was important because Le Gym is one of the leading clubs in France. I go into it thinking I have little to lose, with a calm mindset and the will to bring fresh ideas.”

 

STRONG ALIGNMENT

“With Franck and Florian, we’ve stayed united. There have been tough times, but that’s to be expected as we’re not robots. We’ve been resilient and the best proof is Franck’s contract extension (…) It’s an important sign of unity,” he rejoices “Being able to build over the long term with Franck Haise and Flo Maurice is excellent. Because before being good professionals, they’re good people (…) When you work with people over time, you get to know them, to feel each other’s sensitivities. The connections created aren’t tangible, but they’re extremely valuable.”

 

THE COACH’S CONTRACT EXTENSION

"It happened very naturally. It took less than a week of discussions to reach an agreement,” Fabrice Bocquet told L’Équipe. “In my vision for the club, stability is very important.”

Will this extension put an end to recurring speculation about Franck Haise’s future? “Maybe, but just because Franck extends, or players extend, or Florian Maurice has a permanent contract, doesn’t mean they can’t be approached today or tomorrow,” replies the OGC Nice President. “What matters to us is working with shared values and building our path with absolute clarity. Because when Franck arrived, between the project he was presented with and today’s reality, the only difference has been the drop in TV rights, which we couldn’t have foreseen on such a scale. On everything else, there has been consistency with what was said.”

 

THE CHALLENGE OF REMAINING IN EUROPE

In mid-August, Franck Haise said in a press conference that he didn’t yet have a squad capable of competing on all fronts, at the time of elimination against Benfica. “You don’t need to be Einstein to know that between the current absentees and an unfinished transfer window, we didn’t have the squad required to meet the club’s objectives. That was the situation at that moment in time, and we all agreed 2000%,” adds Bocquet in Nice-Matin. “Today, looking at our squad on paper, we believe the conditions are in place to fight for the club’s objectives: top 7 in Ligue 1 and a good performance in the Europa League. If we succeed, it will be the first time in the club’s history qualifying for Europe three seasons in a row. Potentially, we can achieve something unprecedented. And if for some reason we don’t quite reach that level, as long as we’ve been coherent internally, we’ll do better next time.”

 

"I FIRMLY BELIEVE IT"

"This is my fourth season here, and the fourth time we haven’t had a flying start. With a win against Nantes, we’ll be ahead of last year. What was frustrating against Le Havre, beyond the result, was the performance. Today, we have a squad, but not yet a team that stands out. We’re very aware we all have to do much better. The level of commitment shown against HAC is absolutely not what we want to display. It’s up to the players to create their own story. I firmly believe we’ll get there.”

 

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