The fate of the Girondins de Bordeaux (FCGB) is almost definitively sealed. Meeting on Monday, August 12, the appeal committee of the French Football Federation (FFF) confirmed the administrative demotion of the club, six-time Ligue 1 champion in its history, to National 2 (fourth French division). This decision had been pronounced
The fate of the Girondins de Bordeaux (FCGB) is almost definitively sealed. Meeting on Monday, August 12, the appeal committee of the French Football Federation (FFF) confirmed the administrative demotion of the club, six-time Ligue 1 champion in its history, to National 2 (fourth French division). This decision had been pronounced on August 1 and immediately contested by the FCGB.
In a press release, the club said it was “doing everything possible to maintain its position in the National League”, explaining that “certain significant points remain to be finalised, including those (concerning the) Matmut Atlantique stadium” . Points that did not convince the FFF, which therefore made its decision on Monday, after the club’s representatives were interviewed before its national management control department.
A last resort is however possible: to request conciliation before the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). But the Girondins have little time. The National championship, to which they had been relegated on July 9 due to lack of financial guarantees, resumes on August 16, that of National 2, the following day.
A social plan under study
Placed in receivership by the commercial court, the club, whose owner is the Spanish-Luxembourgish businessman Gerard Lopez, has abandoned its professional status acquired in 1937, terminated the players’ contracts and dissolved its training center. A social plan is also looming for the club’s employees, i.e. 90 administrative employees in addition to the professional players.
The Matmut Atlantique stadium, built for Euro 2016 as part of a public-private partnership, for a total cost of around 310 million euros, is owned by Bordeaux Métropole. It is operated by a subsidiary of the construction groups Vinci and Fayat. To use this infrastructure, the club had to pay rent of 4.7 million euros per year, an amount significantly higher than the budgets of amateur clubs.
Faced with a “critical situation”, the operator requested this summer a renegotiation of the contract signed with the metropolis, which risks, in the event of the bankruptcy of this company, finding itself with the entire cost of the stadium at its expense.
