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Demotion of Bordeaux: five minutes to understand the catastrophic situation of the Girondins

2022-07-06T10:59:28.927Z


On Tuesday, the DNCG, an institution that controls the finances of French professional football, confirmed on appeal its decision to demote adm


Thirteen years after winning their last French championship title, the Girondins de Bordeaux may be leaving French professional football.

This Tuesday, the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) confirmed, on appeal, its initial decision to administratively relegate the club to National 1 (3rd division) because of its financial situation.

A relatively rare situation, which greatly threatens the survival of this emblematic club.

How did Bordeaux get there?

This final decision by the DNCG is the culmination of four nightmarish years at the head of the Girondins.

In 2018, the club was sold by M 6 to the American investment funds GACP and King Street, which became the sole owner at the end of 2019. The takeover of the club was an administrative and sporting fiasco, which led King Street to announce its withdrawal in 2021. In urgent search of a buyer, Bordeaux was finally bought in June 2021 by the businessman Gérard Lopez, candidate with the strongest kidneys at that time for the DNCG.

In an already delicate financial situation, Bordeaux did not raise the bar under the presidency of Lopez and, worse, worsened it by achieving one of the worst seasons in its history.

Last in Ligue 1, Bordeaux is relegated with finances in the red.

In mid-June, the DNCG decided to demote them to National 1: as the financial "policeman" of professional football, the role of the DNCG is to ensure that a club engaged in a competition can go to its end without bankruptcy, which she considered to be unsecured.

Lopez and the Girondins still have to fill a hole of 40 million euros in their coffers to survive in Ligue 2. For three weeks, the Hispano-Luxembourg businessman moves heaven and earth to try to present a case more favorable to the DNCG, financial solvency guarantees.

These guarantees will therefore have been deemed insufficient.

What recourse is possible?

Despite the seriousness of this decision for the Girondins, all hope is not lost: the DNCG rarely follows through on its administrative demotion decisions, which are more intended to put pressure on clubs to improve their record.

Tuesday evening, the Girondins announced again to appeal this decision and "to appeal against this unfair decision", in the words of its president.

The Girondins will, as the procedure requires, seize the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) for conciliation, that is to say "a non-contentious resolution procedure, also called amicable resolution, of disputes".

The CNOSF, which must meet quickly, will re-examine the file and can confirm or reverse the decision of the DNCG of appeal, in an advisory capacity.

The final step for the Girondins would thus be to take his case to the administrative court in order to have his demotion invalidated.

What future for the Girondins?

If, after all these stages, the Girondins do not win their case, it seems unlikely or even impossible that Bordeaux will continue to exist as it is in National 1. The most likely being the filing for bankruptcy and the loss of status. professional, and therefore a return to the National 3 box for the Girondins, whose structure and many jobs would be intimately threatened.

"Behind, it is obviously the judicial liquidation, the end of women's football in the agglomeration, that of the training center", listed the president of the Bordeaux metropolis, Alain Anziani, with our colleagues from L'Équipe.

I have just had several employees of the club, the pain and the fear which are theirs multiply mine.

Thank you for your kind messages of support here and elsewhere.



We still had some great times.



💙Everywhere and all the time💙

— Eric Dagrant (ACTEA GROUP ambassador) (@EricDagrant) July 5, 2022

However, even this disaster scenario would not mean the definitive death of the club.

In an article published in the journal "Risks" in March 2021, researchers Luc Arrondel and Richard Duhautois recalled that, among the 45 bankruptcies in French professional football since 1975, "none of them has disappeared: the clubs relegated leave in the amateur divisions, sometimes very low in the regional hierarchy, even at the departmental level" and that "11 out of 45 have recovered their professional status and some have regained their level at the time of their relegation after a more or less long time".

The most notable examples being those of Reims, which filed for bankruptcy in 1991, were relegated to R1 and regained their level in 11 seasons;

Brest, demoted to N1 also in 1991 and which recovered after 19 seasons;

but also Grenoble, demoted from Ligue 2 to N3 in 2011 and who returned there in 7 years, or even Strasbourg, which went from N1 to N3 in 2011 and which is now playing in Ligue 1. The latest striking example to date being that of SC Bastia, demoted from L1 to N3 in 2017, and which returned to Ligue 2 last season.

“A football club never dies”, assure the economists.

If that can put a little balm in the hearts of Bordeaux.

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2022-07-06

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