Can the Red Star evolve at the Bauer stadium in the event of accession to Ligue 2 next May? A meeting Monday at the headquarters of the French Football Federation has something to worry about. It is a traditional meeting organized in mid-season with potential candidates for the climb to present them the specifications to be respected in order to be able to progress to the next level. However for the moment, the club of Saint-Ouen, second in its championship, is far from having raised the questions as to the possible bringing into conformity of its enclosure. The fault of a budget that the specialists of the commission deem underestimated.
This Monday, the leaders of Dunkirk (1st), Red Star (2nd), Villefranche (3rd), Pau (4th) and Lyon-Duchère (5th), all National residents, were therefore invited to a meeting in the presence of Didier Quillot, Executive Director General of the Professional Football League (LFP) and of the stadiums and sports activities of the FFF. Ultimately, it is the latter who approve the stadiums so that the speakers can host L2 meetings. The specifications are, of course, quite heavy.
Before dreaming of a brand new new speaker on the Bauer site, the Red Star thought it had anticipated the problem. In particular by budgeting and planning - in the event of a rise in L2 - the start of work the day after the last match at the Bauer stadium, on May 7 against Béziers. The program for this major facelift included the installation of more powerful lighting, the installation of video surveillance equipment and the installation of a natural grass field replacing the synthetic delivered in summer 2011. All these developments of compliance would be the exclusive responsibility of the club which had opened its capital (up to 12.5%) to new investors - Guillaume Rambourg ( Editor's note: founder of Verrazzano Capital ) and Christophe Petit of the Fiducim group - last September .
According to our information, the budget of 2 M € presented to carry out this work of standards compliance surprised some representatives present at the meeting who believe that the Audonian club largely underestimated the amount of the standards of the Bauer stadium. It would take at least twice as much to have a stadium eligible for L2 matches. Arriving confident at the meeting organized at the FFF, the leaders of the Saint-Ouen club will have to rework their copy with the Federation. However, they had the feeling that they had well prepared their dossier by first activating the principle of upgrading to standards.
The Bauer stadium dossier is crucial for the Audonian leaders, who have been forced into exile three times in recent years. With each rise in the anteroom of the elite, the club had to play far from its bases: two seasons at Beauvais (2015-2016 and 2018-2019) and one at the Jean-Bouin stadium in Paris (2016-2017). Relocation of his home games had undoubtedly cost the Red Star the points of the climb in L1 and the 2 following it had partly precipitated the descent in National.
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Asked, the president of the Red Star did not wish to speak. But, no one at the club doubts the possibility of finding Ligue 2 at Bauer next season. And avoid relocating yet another Red Star match like this Saturday in Nice in the 16th round of the Coupe de France where the mayor (UDI) William Delannoy is expected. The city will take the opportunity to take stock of the future new stadium. After having chosen the Wilmote project, he must take advantage of the match to meet the teams of the architectural firm which built the Allianz Riviera.
