Former Geneva football boss on trial for fraud

Police van with Marc Roger arriving at court in Geneva on Monday Keystone

Three years after the financial collapse of Servette football club, former president Marc Roger and two board members are standing trial in Geneva.

Roger, who took charge in February 2004, is accused of fraud and financial misconduct relating to the bankruptcy of the Geneva club one year later. He faces up to seven and a half years in prison if found guilty.

The Frenchman, who was also the former agent for French football stars Nicolas Anelka, Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira, goes on trial alongside former director Olivier Maus and French lawyer Marguerite Fauconnet, accused of mismanagement and forging documents, respectively.

Saddled with debts of around 12 million (US$10 million), the 17-time Swiss football champion was demoted two leagues in 2005 after an unbroken stay of 115 years. After a tough comeback, the team currently languishes second from bottom of the Challenge League – or second division.

“We accuse Roger of fabricating Servette’s accounts to falsely save the club from bankruptcy and to obtain a licence for the 2004-2005 season from the Swiss Football League,” said prosecutor Dario Zanni earlier this week.

Roger is also accused of being reckless with the accounts and using club money for his own personal expenses. According to the indictment, Servette’s losses increased from about SFr860,000 in July 2004 to nearly SFr15 million within six months.

“It was total anarchy; there was no accounting structure,” declared a former accountant on Wednesday.

The prosecutor said Roger showed “immoderate, dangerous ambition relating to the club’s future”, adding that he was far too optimistic about Servette’s earning potential, the number of spectators and sponsor money. The club also signed 21 new players while over-estimating their value and speculating on their eventual transfer.

Around 20 former players, including Frenchman Christian Karembeu, who was signed in August 2004 for SFr3 million, testified on Monday about the sad end to the club and their careers.

“I planned to end my career in Geneva. I believed in Marc Roger’s project. For me it’s a big failure,” said Karembeu.

Scapegoat

In his defence Roger, 45, claims he is being made a scapegoat.

“I wanted to give Geneva a competitive European club and develop a proper training centre. To do that I was planning a partnership with Abidjan, an alliance with Real Madrid, a public ownership project and was ready to welcome Pele to Servette’s management board,” he told the court.

“I did everything to save a ruined club,” he said, adding that he’d been “overtaken by his passion.”

His lawyer, Robert Assaël, said his client had simply inherited a “hot potato”.

“Already in 2003 Servette had catastrophic excessive debts. The hole amounted to SFr12 million. Since 2004 Roger was welcomed as a saviour. He had a credible project… If he hadn’t intervened the bankruptcy would’ve been announced in 2003,” he told the court.

The lawyer added that the former Servette president hadn’t shown any criminal intent, but had “committed an error of appreciation”.

Some 50 witnesses are expected to give evidence during the ten-day trial.

From bad to worse…

And just when Servette fans thought things couldn’t get much worse, the team’s performance on the pitch and their stadium – the Stade de Genève – are once again a cause for concern.

The new SFr140-million stadium, which was inaugurated in November 2002 and hosted several Euro 2008 matches in June, is experiencing financial difficulties.

The foundation that oversees the management of the stadium announced on August 29 that it was insolvent.

It’s unlikely the stadium will close, assured Foundation President Benoît Genecand.

“But for 2009 we expect around SFr1 million in income and the cost of running the stadium is at least SFr2 million,” he told Le Matin newspaper.

It’s uncertain who is going to pay, but the foundation says the stadium needs a first-division side to survive. Servette currently play their home games before average crowds of only one thousand spectators in a stadium built for 30,000.

swissinfo, Simon Bradley in Geneva

Key facts

Servette were founded in March 1890.
They have won 17 Swiss championship titles and the Swiss Cup seven times.
The team’s home ground is the 30,000-seater Stade de Genève.
They are currently second from bottom of the Challenge League – or second division.

In brief

Servette’s difficulties began in 2001 when French television group Canal Plus reduced its majority holding to comply with ownership rules laid down by European football’s governing body, Uefa.

Early in 2004 former football agent Marc Roger took over as president, promising to return the club to its glory days. But cash failed to materialise and Servette were officially declared bankrupt on February 4, 2005. Roger was arrested a month later on charges of mismanagement.

After his arrest, he skipped bail and fled to France. After several months on the run, he was arrested in Spain in February 2007 and brought back to Switzerland, where he’s spent the past 11 months in prison, repeatedly trying to get released.

Following the club’s bankruptcy, the Swiss Football Association – which had seen Lausanne and Lugano crumble financially in previous seasons – introduced tighter financial controls for clubs.