Before Toulouse, FC Nantes on the edge of the void

It is this Thursday (8:45 p.m.) at the Stadium, then this Sunday (6 p.m.) at La Beaujoire that one of the most legendary clubs in French football will play its future. Perhaps even more than in 2007 and 2009, the dates of his last relegations to Ligue 2. The president of FC Nantes, Waldemar Kita, can bite his nails. He knows what a descent would mean in the sporting and economic context of 2021. This context with contours drawn by the health crisis, and therefore financial for more than a year, and sprinkled with the failure of the broadcaster Mediapro, confusing the tracks as to income from TV rights. But the reasons for the terror do not end there. The idea of ​​a Ligue 1 with 18 clubs from 2022 is gaining momentum within the Professional Football League (LFP). Fewer people in the elite,that means more competition to go back. And de facto makes relegation more frightening. "We have to put our heads back to the place because two big matches await us", agitated Antoine Kombouaré, coach of the Canaries, Sunday at the end of a final defeat against Montpellier (1-2) which sent Nantes in the jump-off for save his skin.

"If you work badly, you go to Ligue 2 and there is a very, very sharp drop in salary"

Antoine Kombouaré, FC Nantes coach

This dam facing Toulouse, 3rd in L2 and red lantern of L1 the previous season, it is expensive because of the shadow of the passage to 18 clubs.

But there are also the specificities of Nantes.

At the beginning of April, in the columns of the daily

Ouest-France

, the boss of the Synergie group, the club's main jersey sponsor, spoke.

"Waldemar Kita knows that we will not remain a sponsor if the club moves to Ligue 2," warned Daniel Augereau, chairman of the executive board.

Kita, president of FC Nantes since 2007, therefore played his all-out: an exceptional bonus of € 50,000 for each player in the event of maintenance.

"I can understand" that it can shock, conceded Kombouaré.

The Canaries have never finished below 14th place in L1 since their comeback in 2013. Playing maintenance like this was not the objective at the start of the season.

“If you work badly, you go to Ligue 2 and there is a very, very sharp drop in salary.

We will then all be punished, ”said Kombouaré, who despite himself symbolizes the exit from the Nantes road.

Supporters buried "FC Kita"

It is obvious to say that FC Nantes has missed its season.

He mostly took some crazy turns.

Highlight, the seven short weeks under Raymond Domenech, former coach of the Blues who had not tasted a bench since the fiasco of the World Cup 2010. “Raymond Domenech will explain his vision of football to us, enough to make us laugh for the next weekends at Kita Circus ”, spat a sound system near Jonelière, the club's training center, on Domenech's debut day.

The "Kita Circus" is the nickname given by supporters to their club, in reference to its management deemed ridiculous by the Franco-Polish leader.

05/23/2021 - Nantes:

Burial of FC Kita

“Mafia Kita we don't want it !!!

»# KitaOut # RendezNousLeFCNpic.twitter.com / ifdTbEvZUj

- Meet us FCN (@rendezleFCN) May 23, 2021

Sunday, even before knowing if Nantes would have to go through a roadblock to maintain itself, members of the ultra group of the Loire Brigade sent a message. They buried a small black coffin with “FC Kita” written on it. "Give us back FC Nantes", could be read on a banner. At the point where they are, the supporters almost come to hope for relegation, which would risk pushing Kita (68) away from Beaujoire. It was to avoid such a collapse that Kombouaré donned the uniform of a firefighter on duty last February, succeeding Domenech who himself succeeded Christian Gourcuff. The Kanak commando mission will end on Sunday at home. But it begins Thursday on the banks of the Garonne, with a rejuvenated Toulouse team who dreams of taking the lift,one year after leaving Ligue 1.

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