Pierre BLAYAU

It’s the summer of 1998. Stade Rennais are restless after surviving relegation by the skin of their teeth with a goal in the last fifteen minutes of the season against Toulouse, and the club were acquired by François Pinault. Pinault installed Blayau (formerly of FNAC and Moulinex and a member of the 1998 World Cup organizing committee) as President of the club. His mission was to coordinate the progression of the sporting and financial fortunes of the club. In his first season, everything went swimmingly. The team were flying high (5th in the table), had a promising manager in Le Guen, and had managed to bring in good players cheaply (notably with the likes of Revault, Sommeil, Arribagé, Le Roux and Nonda.) The President wanted to keep them at the same level in 1999/2000, but aside the prestigious confrontation with Zidane’s Juventus, the season was a failure in every sense of the word, finishing 13th .) Angry at this failure, the majority shareholder invested massively in transfer signings, whilst at the same time the revenue from TV rights was increased in July 2000. The costly recruitment (Lucas, Turdo, Fabiano and Cesar) proved to be a failure, and became a millstone around the club’s neck until 2003, and Pierre Blayau paid the price for this in October 2000.