Encouraged to place their savings in nursing homes, an investment which turned out to be disastrous, 31 professional footballers, active or retired, are suing their union, the UNFP, claiming to have been poorly advised by its management consultancy subsidiary. heritage. “When they came to see me, it was clear that I wanted something sure,” summarized Geoffrey Dernis, French champion with Montpellier in 2010, who has now retired from the field, to AFP.
“I would never have bet on red or black like in the casino. What I wanted was the guarantee of peace of mind,” continues the ex-player trained in Lille, who does not know if he will one day revisit the investments he has made, and which correspond to half of what he earned during his career.
Among the players who summon the National Union of Professional Footballers, the former OM defender Laurent Bonnard, the ex-Lille player Franck Béria, the current Blues goalkeeper coach Franck Raviot, the ex-Valenciennois player David Ducourtioux , the former Lensois Alaeddine Yahia or even the ex-Marseille teammates Benoît Cheyrou and Rod Fanni or the ex-Bleu (7 selections) Étienne Capoue, today at Villarreal.
Represented by lawyer Benjamin Cabagno, they accuse the UNFP of “abuse of a dominant position” and “failure to provide advice, information and prudence”. The first hearing before the Paris court is scheduled for April 22.
They criticize the union which protected their rights during their careers for having advised them, via its wealth management consultancy subsidiary Europ Sports Conseil (ESC), closed last year, to invest in the purchase of rooms in establishments accommodation for dependent elderly people (Ehpad).
The idea was to purchase one or more medical rooms in an establishment with state approval and operated by a third party to receive the rent for these rooms and benefit from tax advantages. An investment supposed to be safe.
But the plaintiffs believe they were not correctly informed of the risks – and in particular that of seeing the operator of the nursing home move after a few years, leaving the owners with only the walls they purchased, medical rooms impossible to operate. without approval, often dilapidated and located in isolated areas. “They have cathedrals in the desert,” summarizes Benjamin Cabagno.
The lawyer first tried to negotiate with the UNFP before summoning the union and Claude Deplanche, a former footballer, for a time at the head of ESC, on behalf of his clients before the Paris court, demanding compensation from them. million euros in compensation. Contacted by AFP, the UNFP affirmed for its part that it never provided any advice, because “it did not have the skills nor the legal capacity to do so”. The union insists on the fact that “all of the investments made and contested were made solely by the asset management advisors of its subsidiary, ESC”.
The UNFP encourages players to turn against the “real people responsible for their setbacks, namely the ARS (Regional Health Agency) for the allocation or withdrawal of authorization for beds, and the managers of the nursing homes” in question . The complainants also alerted the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) about their situation, even if they still hope to “find a solution” with the union, whose usefulness they recognize and some of which have even been the relay within their clubs.
