“Save Nîmes Olympique: Call for Mobilization at Municipal Council Meeting”

While on the sporting level, Nîmes Olympique should, except for a miracle, find the hell of the National, a group of lovers and supporters of the club calls for mobilization during the municipal council of the City of Nîmes on Saturday May 13, 2023.

In a letter sent to our editorial staff, the collective calls for mobilization this Saturday, May 13, at 8 a.m. in front of the town hall of Nimes on the occasion of the municipal council.

“At the fateful hour when our club is once again flirting with the third division and the world of amateur football after the draw against Valenciennes. We, former Nimes Olvmpique players, groups of supporters, traders, active supporters and business leaders, let’s sound the alarm and call on the town hall of Nimes as well as the Nimes Olympic Association.

From its creation in 1937 to its return to the elite of French football in 2018. 25 years after its last season. Nîmes Olympique has never left anyone indifferent. In its ups and downs, the NO has always remained faithful to its values: an atypical club, with incomparable local inking, an incandescent public, recognized training DNA, an asserted game identity. .

But the Blaquart era, a more recent and brilliant page in the history of our club, coincides with the arrival of a new owner: Rani Assaf. An explosive and atypical profile, which intrigued more than worried at the start. But by his only mercantile vision of football. Rani Assaf, yet blessed by the gods of football with the “Druide Blaquart” at the head of a generation of exceptional players, managed to stop the machine.

By pushing Bernard Blaquart at the start, then by chaining bad sporting choices, Rani Assaf has created instability within the club. End of the approval of the training center key to the success of the last 10 years; removal of physical ticket offices at the stadium; latent conflict with the main groups of supporters; break with the old NO.

The only project that Rani Assaf is trying to carry out: his project for a real estate complex in the middle of which there will be a stadium. We can no longer remain silent even though for the ax match against Valenciennes, the only operation put in place to bring the people of Nîmes to the stadium was… 150 places offered (by the paying members of the Grinta Club)!

We, lovers of the Nimes Olympique wishing to see the soul of our dear club continue, therefore invite the enthusiasts to join us and call:

– At the mobilization on Saturday May 13 at 8 a.m. in front of the town hall of Nimes, city council day in order to ask the Town Hall not to extend the sale agreement for the Stade des Costières as long as Rani Assaf has not put in place a real structure and a sports project worthy of a professional club

– To the mobilization of the people of Nimois to take our Crocodiles to the home stretch in Ligue 2 by providing them with popular support and a fervor worthy of the greatest football clubs

– If we are not heard by the Town Hall, we ask the Nîmes Olympique Association, the last bastion of the history and identity of our club, to defend the honor of the club and to denounce the convention binding the association and the SASP by putting Rani Assaf face to face with her responsibilities.

We are on the verge of a return to amateurism, ultimately more in line with the way the club is currently run. So from amateur status in National 1 with Rani Assaf, to that in Regional 1 with the people of Nîmes as buyer and owner of their club, there is only one step, which we are ready to take to save Nîmes Olympique! “

Collective “Let’s save the Nîmes Olympique”

First signatories: Alain Espeisse, Johnny Ecker, Philippe Debathy, Stan Karvatt, Patrice Beaumelle, Stéphane Ghalem, Gérard Lanthier, Giadiators Nimes 1991, Nemansus 2013, A las Cinco de la Tarde, Rue Jean Bouin, Café l’Annaba, Café Latin, Les Enfants Denîm , Arthur’s House, Modrek.