• The Girondins de Bordeaux club was relegated on Saturday despite winning Brest (4-2).

  • Questions arise to rebuild the club after this setback, at the sporting and financial level.

  • The “support and vigilance committee” will be convened by the mayor in early June, when he expects a presentation of the strategy from the leaders.

The threat has become reality.

Bordeaux in L2, unheard of since 1991-1992: weighed down by their successive buyers, the Girondins were officially relegated on Saturday despite their victory in Brest (4-2).

And the future looks uncertain for this historic club and its owner Gerard Lopez.

“It is a very sad moment for our club, our city, the supporters, its employees and all those who are attached to it”, reacted Pierre Hurmic, mayor of Bordeaux, in a press release on Saturday evening.

It's official, the Girondins will evolve next year in @Ligue2BKT.


We would like to thank the Navy and White lovers for their support and hope to experience better days together soon.

🔵⚪ pic.twitter.com/0qbG8vWbLv

— FC Girondins de Bordeaux (@girondins) May 21, 2022


Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

I ACCEPT

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.


Last summer, after negotiations with the American fund King Street, Lopez landed as a savior in Bordeaux, despite a blurred image by the end of his management of the Lille club (2017-2020), from which he had been ousted for financial problems.

The Hispano-Luxembourgish businessman has launched a project which, according to him, is similar to the “ascent of Kilimanjaro without oxygen”.

In fact, Bordeaux ran out of air throughout the season, signaling itself with an edifying porosity (91 goals conceded), the worst in L1 since 1978. Watched in its recovery by the DNCG, financial policeman of French football, Lopez had bet on the Swiss coach Vladimir Petkovic, who scored for the Blues at Euro-2021.

A failed and shortened bet in February.

Avoid filing for bankruptcy

Between the executives of the locker room marked by the last two traumatic seasons, and the young locals too rarely put forward, the management does not manage to succeed in the amalgam.

Quickly, tensions arise due to a lack of authority on a daily basis, misconduct increases, the team's large salaries are singled out, others are sent to reserve or forced to change scenery.

Asked at the start of the year about a possible relegation, the deputy general manager Thomas Jacquemier had affirmed that “for the Girondins, there is no model, there is no life in L2.

The income that we derive from TV rights in L2 does not allow the club to survive there ”.

The descent for Bordeaux, plagued by recurring financial difficulties (67 million deficit for 2020-2021 according to the DNCG), could mean filing for bankruptcy and heading to the N3 (5th division).

Seeing the inevitable dawning, the club nevertheless studied the question in more detail and believes the rebound is possible in L2, under certain conditions.

What future for the club?

The descent into L2 now recorded, the question now arises of the restructuring and lifestyle of an oversized club which risks not escaping a social plan, and its means.

To the 7 million euros of the LFP supposed to help any relegated club, is added only a half share (8.25 M EUR) of the payment promised to all L1 clubs in July by the investment fund CVC, new shareholder of the commercial company of French football – the other half share of 8.25 M EUR being paid to the club promoted in parallel.

Another financial contribution expected this summer, the capital gains expected (20%) on the transfers of Jules Koundé and Aurélien Tchouaméni, trained at the Girondins and solicited by the biggest European clubs.

For the rest, the club with the scapular will have to best manage the purchase options, for the most part compulsory, of the players who have come on loan, and manage its payroll, knowing that wages fall legally by 20% in the event of a descent.

He will also have to be convincing to resell his strongest market values ​​(Hwang Ui-Jo, Junior Onana, Alberth Elis) to avoid bankruptcy.

“I will bring together at the beginning of June the various personalities of the “support and vigilance committee” that we set up in May 2021 when the club took over, announced the mayor in his press release.

On this occasion I will invite the leaders to come and present their strategy to us to ensure the economic and sporting future of the Girondins”.

Sport

Ligue 1: Miracle, fatalism and despair… How do the supporters see the fight for the dam?

Sport

Girondins de Bordeaux: “A glaring lack of professionalism”… Josuha Guilavogui dismantles his team

  • Bordeaux

  • Sport

  • Aquitaine

  • FC Girondins de Bordeaux