How did one of France’s best football clubs struggle to survive in the lower leagues?

claret red – Inside Bordeaux’s training complex, a giant map shows every football club it has faced in European competition, including giants such as AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Juventus.

Few fans know Bordeaux’s opponents these days, and high-profile away matches have been replaced by arduous six-hour bus journeys to little-known stadiums in small towns in France.

The club, a six-time national champion and once home to France great Zinedine Zidane, is an underdog in the amateur fourth division after one of the most shocking declines in European football.

Bordeaux, 118 million euros ($128 million) in debt, closed its youth academy, women’s section and most of its administrative offices. It filed for bankruptcy and gave up its status as a professional sports club. More than 80 people will lose their jobs in a 6 million euro ($6.5 million) layoff plan on November 5. One of France’s proudest clubs faces a race against time to avoid liquidation with no new investor in sight.

“You feel very sad and disappointed,” said club legend Alain Giresse, who scored 182 goals in 592 matches in the 1970s and 80s. “It’s not a club that destroys itself, it’s a club destroyed by those responsible.”

The team currently plays in the National 2 league, three places below France’s top tier, against opponents from towns with a population of as few as 10,000. In comparison, approximately 1 million people live in the metropolitan area of ​​Bordeaux, a world-famous tourist destination for its prestigious wines.

If this is unusual for the club, the same can be said for the club’s best player, former England and Liverpool forward Andy Carroll, who joined Bordeaux this summer.

“I knew the situation they were in, and when I talked to them, I knew there was a project there,” Carroll, 35, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “It is a club that deserves to be at the top with its stadium, training ground, fans and everything the club can give.”

Fans are suffering

Bordeaux’s misfortune shows how a long-time top-flight club can decline in European football’s league system; This system, unlike US professional sports, operates on a promotion and relegation system in which teams at the bottom of the league drop down one level the following season.

Founded in 1936FC Girondins de Bordeaux in total 75 seasons It featured in France’s top division and won its last league title in 2009. He also won four French cups, three League Cups and reached the 1996 UEFA Cup final.

The club’s training ground takes its name from the 19th-century Château du Haillan, located in the heart of vast meadows, befitting the aesthetic atmosphere of a club graced by elegant playmakers such as Giresse, Zidane and Yoann Gourcuff. Haillan was excitedly waiting for Bordeaux, inspired by Gourkelepçe, to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2010.

Almost every training ground is now empty.

“This place is like a place that is no longer alive, there is nothing there,” Giresse told the AP by phone.

Bordeaux returned to the 42,000-capacity Matmut Atlantique stadium, which hosted football matches during the Paris Olympics, after a dispute with team owners over match-day expenses was resolved. But the remote location, 40 minutes by tram from the centre, heightens the impression of an isolated white elephant. During a league match against Normandy team Avranches on October 19, the food stalls were closed and fans sat on the benches and ate their own provisions like a surreal picnic.

Denis Barbet, who has been following Bordeaux since the 80s, was deeply saddened by the closure of the youth academy.

“It’s a disaster, with all the people losing their jobs,” Barbet, 57, said. “The training center is the symbol of the club, the Château du Haillan is outstanding. “When you know that and the glory days and there’s nothing left and everything is abandoned, it’s heartbreaking.”

His son Yoann Barbet entered the academy and captained Bordeaux to a 12th-place finish in the second division last season.

Regis Marty, another lifelong fan, watched Giresse and Zidane in their glory days and feared a bleak future.

“There aren’t many solutions other than a good buyer,” Marty, 61, said. “I don’t believe this will happen. I want this with all my heart, but it will be difficult.”

During the match, the club’s main supporter groups, Ultramarines and North Gate, expressed differing opinions on the club’s leadership.

The Ultramarines unfurled a giant banner speaking of “renewed hope”, while Northern Gate called on club president Gérard Lopez to “get lost” and set off black smoke flares in protest.

Bordeaux won 1-0 with Carroll’s fifth goal in the last three games.

“Right now, I run every day feeling like I’m still 17,” Carroll said. “I feel really good about myself, my life, football and outside the club.”

From the Premier League to amateur football

Carroll’s heading ability and his exceptional ability to catch the ball on the chest set him apart in amateur football. Hardly surprising considering he played 16 seasons in the Premier League and scored two goals for England.

Carroll cost Liverpool £35 million ($46 million) when he transferred from Newcastle in January 2011. He was the Premier League’s most expensive English transfer at the time.

After years of injury problems, he was transferred to French 2nd league team Amiens last season and this year he was transferred to Bordeaux. His salary was not disclosed, but the maximum monthly salary in the amateur league is 3,500 euros ($3,800).

“When I first came here I wanted to challenge myself, something different. I didn’t know how that would happen,” Carroll said.

St. in Newcastle He experienced deafening atmospheres at James’ Park and Liverpool’s Anfield. So what does he think about playing away against Saumur in a stadium with a capacity of 2500 people?

“I love it, I think it’s great. That’s what grassroots football is about, that’s where I started and it brings back a lot of memories,” said Carroll. “It’s a great feeling to be playing football at my age and having the fans still there. “It doesn’t matter if it’s just a rope around the field or a big stadium.”

Where did things go wrong?

General American Capital Partners bought Bordeaux from its long-time owner, television channel M6, in 2018, then sold it to backer King Street.

Epidemic and a TV deal collapsed It caused French football to suffer great losses. When King Street was pulled out, Lopez purchased Bordeaux in June 2021. The following season they finished last in Ligue 1 and were relegated.

While Bordeaux narrowly missed the opportunity to rise the following year, Lopez compensated for the huge financial losses by writing a 38 million euro shareholder loan to Bordeaux.

Ahead of this season, the club failed to provide financial guarantees to French football’s financial watchdog, DNCG. The DNCG relegated Bordeaux to third place in July after a deal with potential backers of Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool and the Boston Red Sox, fell through. Bordeaux were placed under receivership by the city’s commercial court, which triggered another relegation but at least meant a debt freeze.

Fifty academy players were released, providing short-term savings but depriving the club of future revenue from the sale of homegrown talent.

Former players such as Giresse, Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry want Lopez to leave the team. So is mayor Pierre Hurmic. Going into liquidation may force this, but Bordeaux will fall into the abyss of the regional leagues.

Lopez did not respond to requests for comment.

Bordeaux, who were mid-table at the start of the season, need two promotions to return to professional football, so goals are plentiful from Carroll, who is optimistic despite the size of the challenge.

“There’s already a lot of pressure on us to get promoted,” Carroll said. “If we can keep winning games, I think there will be pressure on other teams to stop us.”

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AP football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer