French team loses millions in several years, investigation begins / News - Basketnews.com

Limoges lost €2.3 million throughout the last five years, sparking an investigation by local authorities and a suspension of payment by the Limoges municipality. The club's commercial director made rounds online with his comments, while the club wanted to use a made-up reason to fire the team's sporting director more cheaply.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

A team in the French Basketball League (LNB), Limoges CSP, is in financial trouble, and the local authorities have started a series of actions against the club.

Although the organization's representatives deny it, Limoges have reportedly lost €2.3 million throughout the last five years, Le Populaire du Centre writes, later confirmed by Basket Europe.

Additionally, the controlling institution that oversees the LNB has published that Limoges had lost around €1.3 million in the last two seasons. The local authorities -- the Interdepartmental Directorate of the National Police -- have already opened an investigation into the matter.

The club has already been sanctioned by the LNB. Namely, two wins were taken off the team's total this season (although the initial request was for three games to be deducted).

On February 14th, the Limoges municipality announced that it had suspended payments to the basketball team. According to Le Populaire, the sum amounts to around €400,000.

The club's commercial director, Guillaume Lanave, who's the son-in-law of the club's owner, Celine Forte, recently made the headlines after bashing the team's past employees and championed his work for increasing income. Lanave has since announced he would step away from the position after the end of the season.

Limoges have also wanted to fire the club's sporting director, Kevin Anstett, using serious misconduct to reduce the amount they would have to pay for the departure. The team's performance coach, Piotr Pigla, has already left the team and joined Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem three weeks ago.

The most loyal Limoges fans have been calling this a clown show and have displayed multiple banners against the club's management during the games.

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