At Biarritz Olympique, "many people don't want to know who puts the money in, but why does Pierre-Edouard Stérin put it in?"

What could Pierre-Edouard Stérin be looking for in Biarritz? The French Catholic billionaire, with his openly reactionary political agenda, arrived in the seaside town on the Basque coast a year ago, investing in his professional rugby club, Biarritz Olympique (BO). In June 2024, he stated that he wanted to "promote" the rugby club nationally and internationally. Through a trust, a complex financial arrangement, Stérin's investment fund, Otium, then committed to a guarantee of two million euros per year for three years to meet the needs of the BO's management. They are glaring.

On Monday, May 19, the Pro D2 club was administratively demoted to the Nationale, the third French division, due to its "deteriorating financial situation." This raises the prospect of a takeover of the century-old Basque institution by Pierre-Edouard Stérin's investment fund, called Otium. Otium could indeed become the owner in place of Shaun Hegarty, a former player of the club who became chairman of the supervisory board a year ago, whose specialist press