Saïd Chabane

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Saïd Chabane (born 1964 in Algiers) is an Algerian businessman. He comes from a Kabyle family of seven children. He studied at the Polytechnical University in Algiers and later at Mines Paris – PSL. In 1991 he trained as a consultant in Angers. After a period of unemployment in 1997, he invested 30,000 French francs to start Cosnelle, a meat company in France. By 2011 Cosnelle had a turnover of about €55 million. He and his wife Isabelle have three children.

In November 2011, Chabane bought Angers SCO and became the club’s president. Under his leadership, Angers climbed from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1 in 2014–15, finished 9th in the 2015–16 season, and reached the Coupe de France final in 2017, where they lost to Paris Saint-Germain. He cited Jean-Michel Aulas and Louis Nicollin as his favourite other French football owners because of their results and outspoken nature.

From February 2020, four current or former Angers employees accused him of sexual assault, alleged to have occurred between 2014 and 2019. He resigned as Angers’ president in March 2023, with the club near the bottom of Ligue 1; his son Romain took over as president. Earlier that month, Angers’ manager Abdel Bouhazama had also resigned over remarks about sexual harassment.

In March 2024 Chabane was sentenced to two years in prison for six counts of sexual assault against female employees of Angers SCO and Cosnelle, with a further year suspended. He was acquitted of a seventh charge.