Mehrtens reported to lead group out to buy Beziers

JAMES HARRINGTON

LESS than two weeks before the new ProD2 season kicks off, overseas buyers have officially submitted a bid to buy Beziers – four years after the club was taken under local council control, according to reports in France.

The Rugbyrama website said that a foreign investment group, led by former New Zealand international Andrew Mehrtens, had tabled a formal bid for the club, and sent details of the offer, including the fiscal framework holding it together, to the Ligue Nationale de Rugby and its financial watchdog A2R.

Mehrtens has long-standing links with Beziers. He rounded off his storied playing career guiding the club back into Federale 1 before joining the coaching staff, first as backs coach and then – briefly – as head coach, before becoming an ambassador. It is rumoured that, if the deal goes through, he may eventually become president.

The Mediterranean town’s mayor confirmed that negotiations had taken place over a series of months, the website said. He had previously indicated that local authority ownership of the club was only ever intended to be temporary, but that any offer would be subject to serious scrutiny before it got as far as this bid has.

He has good reason to proceed with caution. The local authority stepped in four years ago, after what seemed to be a big-money takeover offer fronted by former France international Christophe Dominici was rejected by the league’s financial monitors.

The chairman of the club’s management board, Jean-Michel Vidal, handed in his resignation last week – a move that has all the hallmarks of a takeover boardroom switch. For the moment, the club is under interim management.

Beziers – who finished third in the ProD2 last season, and reached the semi-finals of the play-offs – kick off their new campaign on Friday, August 30, with a trip to promoted Nationale champions Nice.