Merger of FCO Valras Sérignan and SC Cers Portiragnes, ASM 34 will have 600 members.
At the end of the morning, Jean Sasso, the president of FCO Valras Sérignan and Christophe Cuzin, the leader of SC Cers Portiragnes, show a broad smile.
The plan to merge their two clubs is progressing rapidly. The fixed timing is following its course and at the start of the next school year, if all goes well, regional football will also have to take into account the Ambition Sportive Méditerranée 34 (ASM 34).
This is the name that was chosen for what will be one of the most important structures in Occitania. Be that as it may, on one side or the other, the merger seemed inevitable…
A life-size test
“As soon as I arrived at the club three years ago, I quickly understood that if we stayed in our little cocoon between Valras and Sérignan, we could not progress, emphasizes Jean Sasso. Among young people, we have sawtooth results due to a lack of continuity in terms of numbers, whether in quantity or quality. It was from there that the merger project was born and I contacted Christophe Cuzin through Romain Poumes, our sports director.
On the side of Cers Portiragnes, we did not procrastinate for ages to accept the proposal. And as of the start of the new school year, as a life-size test, two categories of young people were brought together with the merger of the U12s (three teams) and the U13s (two formations): “The season went like this and it worked very well, assures Christophe Cuzin with satisfaction. There was a progression of groups. This has, in fact, made it possible to homogenize the levels.”
On the strength of this observation, the two presidents (who will be co-presidents of the future structure), no longer hesitate to bet on the merger of their structures: “You have to grow at all levels, adds Christophe Cuzin. We will also need more volunteers. One of the main objectives is also to develop the football school by bringing in or returning players and educators from the basin. The goal is to focus the work on the quality of the players and to make them climb the ladder to the first team. From the U14 category, our desire is to have all our teams in the regional division.
Working with the SBA
The leaders of the future club intend to continue working with AS Béziers, the aim being to send them their best elements and to recover those they do not keep. With a key word for the future club which will have a school of goalkeepers: training.
Without forgetting to rely on a structure with well-anchored foundations: “The base of the club will be stronger, more comfortable, notes Jean Sasso. The goal is to structure ourselves well at all levels. Knowing that administratively, we are already, each of us, in the nails.
The ASM will rely on a budget of around €100,000. This should allow it to better manage the approximately 600 licensees it will have in its ranks.
The official constitution in the coming weeks
In their quest for excellence, the leaders hope to be heard by the municipalities of the four communes they represent in order to eventually have a synthetic pitch. This would allow them to gain in quality in terms of training.
Knowing that the sessions will be shared between the municipalities, the leaders are considering setting up a shuttle service between the villages, in order to allow young people to move around.
In the coming weeks, the general meetings will take place marking the dissolution of the two clubs. At the beginning of June, a new assembly will make it possible to constitute the new structure whose colors will be blue and yellow.
