Malaise on all levels.
The Girondins de Bordeaux, dead last in Ligue 1 with six points behind the 17th, are accumulating problems.
Bordering on the ridiculous on the lawn, the club has so far enjoyed a sort of sacred union with its supporters.
This shattered on Sunday afternoon, with repercussions still very sensitive 72 hours later.
Very serious accusations without proof
We are at half-time of the Bordeaux-Montpellier match.
The Girondins lost 2-0 but, even before returning to the locker room, goalkeeper Benoît Costil went to meet the turn of the Ultramarines, who had just whistled him copiously.
The French international is explained with an ultra leader, reputed to be influential in the environment of the club taken over last summer by Gérard Lopez.
Stewards intervene and the player finally leaves, mimicking a gesture suggesting that this supporter is in the pay of the management.
Ten minutes from the end of this nightmarish meeting, lost 2-0 to eleven against nine, the collective posts an explosive message on its social networks.
He accuses the doorman with 178 caps and Laurent Koscielny, forced into retirement in January, of having made racist remarks in the locker room.
Information which he would have learned six months earlier from an employee of the club and which he would have managed to confirm with two employees still in office.
The two footballers would have made fun of the skin color, origins and religion of several colleagues.
The strange and belated reaction of management
She made herself wait.
At first, at the final whistle, Gérard Lopez displays his anger towards the players.
“I spoke with our supporters at half-time.
They were disgusted and I understand them, ”tweets Gérard Lopez after the debacle.
The next day, Benoît Costil participates in the scrubbing.
The local media then evoke his intention to file a complaint – information confirmed on Wednesday by 20 minutes – as well as the potential for a statement of support from his teammates without it arriving.
Management will wait until the next evening to react to the growing unease.
A communication in two stages which reinforces the impressions of floating around Haillan.
The first text calls first to respect the “presumption of innocence” and affirms that “if such accusations were to prove to be founded, the club would immediately draw all the appropriate consequences”.
A second version is sent a few hours later.
An important sentence no longer appears there: “The players also want to affirm that this does not correspond to the reality of what they experience in the locker room.
»
An incomprehensible quagmire
In view of this correction, one would think that the locker room has chosen to dissociate itself from its two colleagues.
Only, according to information gleaned by the local daily newspaper Sud-Ouest, the players would be "in solidarity with Benoît Costil and Laurent Koscielny and planned to step up to the plate if the reaction of the club did not suit them".
“We have questioned as many people as we could since Sunday evening around the club, within the club, with the players who would have been victims of these supposed racist acts.
In fact, it turns out that nothing is confirmed, nothing at all.
From what appears to us, according to our work, it is that these accusations are unfounded, ”said journalist Vincent Romain to the Web media Girondins.
The Ultramarines maintain their accusations on their side.
One of the leaders Florian Brunet tells 20 Minutes that "probative and detailed" evidence has been sent to a journalist.
“Attacking professional players with the network we know them was also exposing oneself.
Especially since, as expected, both the culprits and the victims deny en bloc.
It is also the first time that the locker room has shown solidarity (…) the players had every interest in protecting themselves, ”added the group in a new press release published on Wednesday afternoon.
Press release, March 23, 2022.
To our members, to our forum, to the supporters of the Girondins.
⬇️ pic.twitter.com/2jrn0jENlX
— Ultramarines 1987 (@ub87officiel) March 23, 2022
A few hours earlier, a player had come out of silence.
Striker M'Baye Niang unambiguously took to Instagram the defense of his partners.
“Huge support to my friends in these difficult times.
Serious accusations and so contrary to the values of these two men that I have known for many years.
Strength to you”.