RC Strasbourg (6th) and Olympique de Marseille (3rd) meet this Sunday in Ligue 1 at La Meinau.
The two clubs have been compared for a while.
Racing was thus nicknamed the "Marseille of the East" in reference to the excesses worthy of the Marseille club.
Can this comparison still exist?
Yes and no according to current or former players or members of the Strasbourg club.
A computer scientist who buys the club for one euro, supporters who (literally) set fire to the stadium to contest the dismissal of a coach or even managers prosecuted for fraudulent transfers ... Welcome to RC Strasbourg! Not so long ago, the Alsatian club was nicknamed the "Marseille of the East". A comparison born from the 1980s, when Racing, then at the top of the bill, discovered instability. Crisis of results, governance, tensions, excesses, especially in the 1990s and 2000s… What to be compared to OM and its excesses of all kinds.
“In terms of the atmosphere and the audiences, it was also quite similar. There was and still is a people on each side, ”said former defender Teddy Bertin, who played for both clubs. Including five seasons in Alsace (1998-2003), during which he had… 6 coaches! “Yes, it was going quite well and we didn't often see the president [Patrick Proisy]. I remember some tensions, ”smiles the coach of Saint-Quentin (N2) today, delighted to see that those times are over.
Since his administrative demotion in CFA 2 (5th division) in the 2011 offseason, RC Strasbourg no longer makes extra-sporting waves.
"All this instability no longer exists since the arrival as president of Marc Keller [in the summer of 2012]", specifies Jean-Luc Filser, historic speaker of the club.
“He is more than square and as demanding of himself as with his teams.
Even when things are less well, everyone pulls in the same direction.
"
Supporters still "as passionate but more in the analysis"
The supporters too. No more calls for the resignation of presidents (Bord, Proisy, Ginestet, Hilali, etc.) or coaches. The sacred union seems decreed since the Alsatian club got out of the depths of amateur football. "Relations are calmer with the management," confirms Philippe Wolff, president of the Federation of RCS supporters. “We are still as passionate as before but more in the analysis. And we go up to the front in a constructive way. "
Would this be a notable difference with their Marseille counterparts, some of whom had ransacked the OM training center last January?
François Keller wants to believe it.
"I think our fans are more positive than in the South, where they are more critical when things go wrong," said the director of the training center of the Alsatian club and brother of the president.
An argument validated by Jean-Luc Filser.
“We have gone from an audience of spectators to an audience of supporters.
The movement of the kop from a bend to the west stand had a lot to do with it and today, a song is repeated by the whole stadium.
"
No more ejection bench
More generally, RC Strasbourg has managed to shed a sulphurous reputation.
"Today, we feel that there is a project and a coherence, which was not always the case in my time", confirms Cédric Kanté, trained on the banks of the Krimmeri before asserting himself there among the pros until 2006. “All this is the result of a lot of in-depth work carried out for years with Marc Keller as the central character.
"
A discreet character and not the type to fire a coach on a whim.
In nine and a half years in office, he has known only four: his brother François, Jacky Duguépéroux, Thierry Laurey and therefore, since last summer, Julien Stéphan.
Over the previous decade, ten technicians had followed one another on the Meinau bench!
The end of the stars
"The tempo of the project is set by the management who chooses a coach capable of leading it", summarizes François Keller, evoking a "serene" working climate. Where, in his position as director of the training center, it is no longer difficult to attract the talents of tomorrow. “Because we now have the image of a sexy, family club, which is growing and especially where we work. An image embodied, too, by needy players and names perhaps less flashy than at one time. That of Mostovoï, Chilavert, Leboeuf, etc.
"Some were starised while today, it no longer seems to have major disparities in status or income," Cédric Kanté still analyzes.
The current consultant for Canal + International admits, he has, like many in Alsace, never really liked the comparison with the Olympique de Marseille.
“Because the records are not comparable and it was mainly related to non-sporting affairs.
There was a tendency here to quickly make big stories of little.
All that is far away ... "
Our dossier on Ligue 1
This Sunday, the two clubs will meet at La Meinau in a peaceful atmosphere.
After two successful starts to the season sportingly and without any change in governance.
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RC Strasbourg: Why there are no more serious incidents with the supporters at the Meinau stadium
"Inside, we feel this stability"
Coach of the Racing goalkeepers since his return from… Marseille in the summer of 2020, Stéphane Cassard confirms that the Alsatian club is no longer swimming in troubled waters. He who knew him in much more complicated times (2004-2010). "Inside the club, you can feel this stability", explains the former goalkeeper. “It is in the will to continue like this, to progress and to grow again. We see it in particular with the new training center or the stadium expansion project. Like many, Stéphane Cassard links this new quiet strength of Racing to a man: President Marc Keller. "He was able, with the people around him, to stabilize, structure and restore his identity to this club," he praises, before warning. “Racing has not returned to Ligue 1 for a very long time (summer 2017),it will be necessary to see with the years if that lasts. "
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