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Mourad Boudjellal 'looking to offload Toulon'

RC Toulon v Bath Rugby – Champions Cup

Mourad Boudjellal is again looking for a buyer for Top 14 club Toulon, according to reports in the French media.

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He has instructed Didier Poulmaire – who helped US billionaire Frank McCourt buy French top-flight soccer outfit Olympique de Marseille – and global audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG to find a buyer for his stake in the club by 2019, economic magazine Challenges said.

Poulmaire is responsible for ‘enhancing the Toulon brand’. He is behind a club bid to buy its training centre from local authorities in the blue-collar port town on the Mediterranean coast of France. And he is also said to be considering funding overseas academies.

It is the second time in little more than a year that Boudjellal has sought to divest himself of the club he has owned since 2006.

In September 2016, he was close to selling-up to cinema producer and medical logistics industry executive Gérard Barba – but walked away from the deal. Boudjellal’s decision to stay on was prompted by a direct appeal from then FFR presidential candidate Bernard Laporte, Challenges says.

That decision would cost him dearly. Earlier this year, he dug deep into his own pockets to bail the club out of a reported €2million hole in their finances that could have seen them busted down to the second-tier ProD2. As a result, he increased his stake in the club from 51% to 93%.

Boudjellal is rather less optimistic a year after he was persuaded to stay on. “We are in a collectivist system marked by large operating deficits and declining enthusiasm. The Top 14 must find a new development model,” he is on record as saying.

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Boudjellal took charge at Toulon in 2006, back when the club was languishing in the ProD2 with a clearly stated ambition to return the then four-time French champions to their former glories. During his time in charge, the club has won the ProD2 title, the Top 14 Bouclier de Brennus and a hat-trick of European titles.

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J
JW 44 minutes ago
'France may leave top players at home but will still be serious contenders in New Zealand'

My list is just the current fit squad shown on wikipedia (I know I know!) minus the two teams. Just trying to get a picture of how many of the arguably “top 40” are coming (that would be half) and where they need filling out.


Like I see another post mentioned Berdeu was mentioned at 10 where I’d imagine the poster likes the look of the player, where I was just going by my very rudimentary hierarchy and stat (what opta have of the stats hub and where Berdeu is fairly low) visibility.

If Toulouse or, and, Bordeaux are not in the final

It might be overly critical but with the current state of the Top 14 I can’t see it being anyone else J Marc.


You touch on a very pertinent question I have been asking myself though, what is going to happen to the players outside the Finals game day 23?


I’d imagine that the plane to NZ would already have left, so any of the really good players that can’t make the final selection for their club (but could have for France), will still be needed by their club to stay in France incase someone gets injured for the final. Do you know if that is right?


Yeah I feel that they will still apply the ‘premium’ rule to some players, they’ll need a leader though.


So you think he will try to look to the future rather than make the most competitive team possible?


That might make it a lot easier, it will be very interesting what Razor does in that same respect though J Marc! It’s sounding like it’s going to be the exact same group of tested All Blacks again.

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