Former Bok and All Black buys out France second-division side

NEWS: World Cup winner Bobby Skinstad and former All Black flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens have combined with an Irish investment fund to take control of French second-division side Beziers, the town’s mayor announced on Thursday.

Beziers who were a powerhouse outfit back in the 1970s and 1980s has struggled recently and has been placed under municipal control for the past four years.

The side are currently in seventh place in the French 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.

Mehrtens, who finished his playing career in France with Beziers boasts 70 caps for New Zealand and played in the 1995 World Cup Final.

Skinstad won 42 caps with South Africa, captaining them in 12 and was a member of the triumphant World Cup squad in 2007.

Beziers’ 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 percent of the shares owned by the city which will retain a small stake in order to keep a close eye on the club’s management, to which it provides an annual subsidy of around 1.5 million Euros.