All my energy is going into Beziers

IT’S a dream to be a part-share owner of AS Beziers Hérault, the 11-time French champions, along with Andrew Mehrtens and Bobby Skinstad.

- JOHNNY HOWARD

I was very excited initially but now I am a few weeks into it, I have to keep pinching myself that it’s happened.

I’ll be working on the ground, making sure the operational side of the club runs smoothly whilst the big stars are away doing TV and stuff. My role is bringing in new sponsors, bringing in new revenue streams, and as I have a strong hospitality background I’ll be driving up standards in that area there, and we want to become an events company and a rugby tourist destination. Bobby is going to bring his Rugby 10s franchise tournament to Beziers and we also want to host a Schools’ World Cup. The beauty of it is that we have this amazing 20,000-seater stadium, sunshine 320 days of the year and great wine and great food. You look at Hong Kong and what they are able to do and I reckon we could do it better. I’d like to give it a bloody good go anyway.