Having become one of the figures of CNews thanks to his show L’Heure des Pros, Pascal Praud had previously embarked on a management career at FC Nantes, the club of his heart. With a resounding failure as a result.
The great builders of sport have often been men of the press. Jules Rimet, Henri Desgrange, Jacques Goddet and Victor Breyer are the best illustrations. Recently other journalists have left their editorial offices to become managers of a football club. Michel Denisot, Pape Diouf, Charles Villeneuve, Charles Biétry and Christophe Bouchet have thus taken the plunge to PSG or Olympique de Marseille, with more or less success.
At the start of 2008, it was Pascal Praud’s turn to change hats by leaving TF1 where he had worked at Téléfoot for almost two decades to become deputy general manager of FC Nantes, the club of his heart. With one objective: to be a guide – and the Nantes guarantor – for Waldemar Kita, who became owner of the club the previous summer. But very quickly, the former journalist alienated the Nantes supporters, notably by neglecting the past, not hesitating to say that we must turn the page on “Chorists, from Radio Nostalgie and Amélie Poulain”.
A spectacular rebound
The little sentence doesn’t get through and he ends up recognizing his clumsiness. And after having provoked the anger of the supporters, as evidenced by the “Pascal Praud, motherfucker” who come down from the stands when he goes towards the Nantes kop to give a jersey, forcing him to turn around, and having fallen out with the local press, the former Téléfoot also upsets his colleagues. The fault this time is his lesson-giving side and his desire to govern everything while he had to remain in the shadows. But determined to defend his employer, he takes the blows, claiming to have “thick leather”.
However, barely two years after his arrival at FC Nantes, Pascal Praud decided to abdicate, announcing in a press release “that he had decided, by mutual agreement with Waldemar Kita, to end his functions as deputy general director “. A decision which would allow him a most spectacular rebound at CNews, with certainly 8 p.m. Foot but also L’œil des Praud. The start of a new career.
