Consultant Fabrice Bocquet takes the reins at OGC Nice

French football club OGC Nice has appointed Fabrice Bocquet, a high-profile consultant in France’s football scene, as its new general manager.

The 39-year-old Fabrice Bocquet joins OGC Nice from Portas Consulting, a sports-focused management consultancy where he was Head of Football.

Earlier in his career, Bocquet worked for McKinsey & Company in its Paris office. Over the four-year period, he delivered over 20 engagements in France and beyond with main focus on strategy and corporate finance topics at clients in the consumer goods and telecom, media and technology sectors.

In between his spells in consulting, Bocquet (who for long dreamed of becoming a professional footballer) was Managing Director of FC Lorient, a football club based in Brittany. During his five years leading the club’s business activities, FC Lorient achieved promotion to France’s top-flight Ligue 1, where it currently sits in fourth place following the first seven games of the 2022/23 season.

Bocquet and his team of around 150 employees also led the club through a period of notable financial prosperity. Between 2015 and 2020, FC Lorient was profitable every year, and managed to become Ligue 1’s third most profitable club during this period, behind just behemoths PSG and Lyon.

Now leading OGC Nice, Bocquet is up to his next executive challenge in football. He succeeds Julien Fournier, who held the general manager role since 2011, and stepped down in July following disagreements on the club’s strategy.

Founded in 1904, OGC Nice currently sits in seventh place in the league – but Bocquet’s immediate main challenge is likely to play out off the pitch. In Nice’s latest game, against German outfit FC Cologne, supporters from the French club were part of violent scenes. A total of 39 people were injured during the riots, with local police urging OGC Nice to take measures to “control its fans”.