Former All Blacks first five Andrew Mehrtens and Rugby World Cup-winning Springbok Bobby Skinstad have combined with an Irish investment fund to take control of French second-division club Beziers, the town’s mayor announced on Thursday.
The club, a powerhouse of French rugbyin the 1970s and 1980s, has struggled recently and has been under municipal control for the past four years.
Beziers are currently seventh in the second division, five points behind leaders Montauban.
“The club has been saved,” said Beziers mayor Robert Menard at a press conference, alongside Mehrtens and Skinstad, the club’s two new co-chairmen.
South African-born Mehrtens, 51, who finished his playing career in France with Beziers, won 70 caps for New Zealand and played in the 1995 World Cup final.
Skinstad was capped 42 times by South Africa, captaining them in 12, and was a member of the World Cup-winning squad in 2007.
The club’s new majority shareholder is the Irish investment fund, Strangford Capital, co-founded by businessman and former Formula One boss Eddie Jordan.
For an undisclosed sum, the fund bought 75% of the shares owned by the city, which will retain a small stake in order to keep a close eye on the management of the club, to which it provides an annual subsidy of around €1.5 million ($2.7 million).
