“Toulouse sport is not limited to rugby” | EUROtoday

The Point: Toulouse athletes introduced house 19 medals out of the 64 obtained by France in the course of the Games; you celebrated them on the Place du Capitole. Is this necessary for town?

Jean-Luc Moudenc: It was logical to honor our athletes but in addition to have fun the success of those Games. For months, we talked about all the pieces that was incorrect within the nation. In France, we at all times like to speak concerning the unfavourable. And then all the pieces went effectively, even past what we might have imagined. It was an excellent second of happiness and nationwide communion. We rightly spoke of an “enchanted parenthesis”, which additionally resulted in a political truce that the French appreciated. They did not miss seeing politicians battle on TV units. The lesson of those Olympics is that sport promotes rapprochement and cohesion. It is an element of calm, and, if it promotes competitors, which is a part of life, it additionally conveys values ​​of solidarity. Sport produces the exact opposite of a phenomenon that I usually denounce, that’s to say the sturdy tendency to lapse into hyperindividualism.

This Toulouse success shocked France… And you?

No, as a result of I’ve identified these athletes for a very long time. Until now, sport in Toulouse was primarily related to Stade Toulouse. The new truth is that Toulouse, thanks to those JOPs and because of its athletes, has emerged as a sporting metropolis in a multiplicity of disciplines. The French do not know it, however the Dauphins du Toec membership is the one which has supplied probably the most athletes to the French swimming workforce for forty years. This membership was born in 1908, virtually similtaneously Stade Toulouse, created a yr earlier. The power of those golf equipment, greater than a century outdated, is to achieve being among the many elite whereas remaining open to all Toulouse residents.

The membership complains of an absence of slots within the swimming swimming pools, for coaching swimmers and studying to swim…

The Dauphins’ mission to construct a “swimming city” on Ramier Island constitutes the answer. The building of this bold advanced would unlock eight hundred hours of swimming time per week within the metropolis’s different swimming swimming pools. By supporting this mission, we not solely assist an emblematic membership, but in addition lesser identified golf equipment. In the deliberate monetary package deal, town supplies land valued at 2 million euros and assist of 20 million. To lighten the membership, the Dauphins wish to get well one of many outdated Olympic swimming pools, which might clearly be named Léon-Marchand!

The Dauphins du Toec, just like the Stade Toulouse, personal their services. The Toulouse Football Club (TFC) would really like the identical to occur for it and due to this fact desires to renegotiate the Stadium occupancy settlement. What do you assume?

The TFC is in a particular state of affairs. It is a big skilled membership, however housed in a public construction. Long municipal, the Stadium is now owned by Toulouse Métropole. Already, beneath the presidency of Olivier Sadran, the membership was reserved in direction of municipal brokers, with typically merciless criticism of the state of the pitch. The new managers wish to have extra freedom in managing the tools. I say it, I’m against any privatization. There isn’t any query of promoting the Stadium to the personal sector. Even although I’m conscious that this could add worth to the membership, the shareholders could be the one ones to achieve. Stade Toulouse performs matches on the Stadium. This is necessary for them as a result of extra spectators can attend the match, and this generates helpful income for the membership. The specificity of the Toulouse Stadium is that there’s not a billionaire behind it. The membership shouldn’t be on the capital mannequin of different main rugby groups. Didier Lacroix, its president, has lengthy had a mission to broaden the Ernest-Wallon stadium. However, the latter belongs to an affiliation, Les Amis du Stade Toulouse. It’s a fancy state of affairs! To transfer the schmilblick ahead, and since I discover that these discussions have been happening for too lengthy, I indicated that I used to be keen to launch a participation of 20 million euros. It’s a approach of encouraging different communities, the area, the division, to place themselves in flip. But it’s on no account a “blank check”, as I’ve learn right here and there. On the opposite, I moved ahead with Sioux warning. Today the story is sophisticated, as a result of, whereas Didier Lacroix offered a mission to broaden from 18,000 to 25,000 seats, Damien Comolli, the president of the TFC, indicated that he too wish to broaden the Stadium. The query of the capability of the latter, whose capability varies between 35,000 and 40,000 locations in accordance with the requirements of main soccer and rugby competitions, has been requested commonly. But it had by no means been encrypted. We not speak about a “big stadium”, that’s what it’s. But we now discover ourselves with the 2 presidents of the 2 emblematic golf equipment who every need to broaden “their” stadium.

What do you reply them?

Let them speak to one another! I additionally inform them that there isn’t a query of 1 membership crushing the others and the complete sports activities coverage of the municipality. We don’t select the elite towards beginner sport. The metropolis helps beginner observe of all disciplines in all neighborhoods. We usually personal the sports activities tools. In a big metropolis like Toulouse, this represents a heritage of 700 stadiums, gymnasiums, swimming swimming pools, bowling alleys, tennis courts, and so on. This requires important upkeep funds, with an funding price range of round 70 million euros. . The “swimming pool plan” alone represents 33 million to renovate swimming pools that are affected by dilapidation. The ageing of swimming swimming pools is an issue that impacts all French cities, since they had been virtually all constructed on the similar time.

Does the appointment of Michel Barnier to Matignon sign the top of the Olympic truce?

The conduct of the completely different political events is lower than the state of affairs. Michel Barnier is a person who has the mandatory mood, braveness and imaginative and prescient. It is claimed to belong to the “old world”; This is a top quality for me. He does certainly have this old school notion of politics, designed above all to serve his nation fairly than serving himself.

Is he the person for the job?

Nobody understands that Michel Barnier was European Commissioner for ten years. That is to say, he was a member of a “European government” the place there have been conservatives, liberals, centrists, socialists. He’s an open man, not withdrawn into himself. This is by no means the stale and stunted proper. When I see that the left, together with probably the most affordable, slams the door in his face solely as a result of he isn’t from their household, I inform myself that these individuals are from one other century. They remained within the outdated politics. I’m not saying that as a result of Michel Barnier is a pal and we belong to the identical household of concepts. I might have stated the identical factor about Bernard Cazeneuve, who in my eyes is a left-wing “Michel Barnier”.

Is the state of affairs determined?

The unimaginable paradox is that every one those that mobilized to dam the National Rally are within the technique of getting ready its victory. If the blockages persist, the frustrations and discontent expressed on the polls will win over much more French individuals. All these little individuals work for Ms. Le Pen, it is a horrifying prospect. For weeks, the previous presidential majority denounced extremism on the suitable and the left. But, on the night of the primary spherical, by organizing the barrage with the New Popular Front, it solely centered on one. Since there could be no extra extremism on the left, would we now have to work with Jean-Luc Mélenchon?