Tony Vairelles, ex-striker from Lens, Bordeaux or Lyon, has a dream: to create a reality show, on the model of the “Star Academy”, but with young footballers who want to become pros. The winner would win a contract in a professional club. He multiplies the meetings to convince a chain and hopes that his legal troubles since 2011 will not be an obstacle.
What will your show be called? “Star Academy of football”?
TONY VAIRELLES. The broadcaster will have a say. For now, I called him The Ultimate Chance. I do not forget that in Nancy, someone helped me to become professional. This outstretched hand, if you never receive it, you may be strong, you will never play. There, with this formula, it is a second chance, or rather a first, which will be offered to players rejected or forgotten by the professional environment. It is a project that I have matured for ten years.
Why ?
I enjoyed the highlights of my career so much that I wanted to capture them. This transmission, I first thought of doing it as a coach but I wanted to be my own boss. So, I took over a club, Gueugnon, in 2009. There, I imagined that I would do without the networks of agents and cronyism that there are in football to offer a chance to everyone. Everything fell on me because I also wanted to give my little brothers a chance. And why should I have forgotten them? After the parenthesis of Gueugnon, I really started to imagine a program like Star Seeds, Pop stars or Star Academy in soccer mode. And I understood that I was holding something. But then I had my big problem with the law.
Exactly, does this label of “accused of justice” still cool chain decision-makers today?
For the general public, the archival label of Lingonberries stuffed in nightclub and sticking out guns is forgotten. People understood that there was a bad buzz and that the file concerning me was bogus. After that, this story probably prevented me from becoming a striker coach in Bordeaux when Willy Sagnol was the coach. This affair frightened the leaders of the club. For eight years, this stuff has polluted my life. And if I have to be frank, I think that without that, the show would have been very likely to already exist. Two years ago, a broadcaster told me yes. And the project was launched. I had found a club that would agree to have the winner of the show sign pro. This club, I do not have the right to name it but I have already played there. But unfortunately, this was not done with the broadcaster. So everything started from scratch.
Where are you today?
I have the club and the jury (the ex-pros Marius Trésor, Steve Savidan, Pascal Olmeta and Olivier Rouyer) and I still miss the broadcaster. Everything is traced. The shooting will necessarily take place in June since then the partner club will resume training. And his pro team will play a friendly match against our selection of candidates. And at the end, the club will choose the winner who will sign a one-year contract. But before, there will have been selections, first among real amateurs then among semi-pros who play National, in N2 or N3 made by the Jury. Then, the selection will be prepared in an isolated place where we will film them and where we will watch them play.
Will there be public votes?
If the chain wants it. But it will be to eliminate the worst each time. Not to designate the winner. And at the end, even if there is only one professional contract, other players will be spotted by good amateur clubs.
Have you set a budget?
Each program broadcast in Prime Time should cost between 200,000 and 300,000 euros. It’s the price for a quality thing.
Could a producer like Cyril Hanouna, a great football lover, be seduced by this project?
I’ve been trying to contact him for two years! But they gave me the wrong numbers. If Hanouna wants to call me, I think my Star Ac soccer project might interest him. He loves soccer, he knows a lot of people on TV.
Does your project really have a chance to see the light of day?
I will go to the end. I spent a lot of money to set up the project and I really believe in it. I have met many channels for some time. I don’t have big returns yet. But it is true that, in September or October, something concrete is needed.
During the night of October 22 to 23, 2011, the Vairelles brothers (Tony, Fabrice, Giovan and Jimmy) are suspected of having opened fire on three security guards at a nightclub in Essey-lès-Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle) . Shortly before, Giovan and Jimmy (then aged 20 and 30) were expelled from the disco after an argument, then returned armed with Tony and Fabrice (38 and 40 years old at the time). The siblings, who dispute this version, were placed in pre-trial detention and released five months later with judicial supervision.
Just over three months after the incident, three vigilantes from the nightclub were charged with assault with weapons. They are suspected of having used tear gas canisters and a steel baton outside the establishment, against Vairelles. A Nancy investigating judge asked last January for the referral to the criminal court of the four Vairelles brothers for “violence in a meeting, with premeditation and with a weapon”. The trial date has not yet been set.
