After months of silence, Gérard Lopez has finally spoken. And his words are worrying to say the least. The horizon is darkening dangerously for the Girondins de Bordeaux. Administratively relegated to the National on July 9, the Marines et Blancs are in a deadlock after the failure of their takeover by the Fenway group. The club has a deficit of 42 million euros five days before its appeal before the DNCG.
“There are three scenarios on the table, including the liquidation and disappearance of the club,” warned Bordeaux president Gérard Lopez in an interview with AFP. The latter, who does not intend to reinvest, recognizes a “critical” situation for the club, six times champion of France and still in the European Cup six years ago. “The failure to move up to L1 last season was a real cold shower, a real blow,” recalls Lopez, recalling the damaging defeat at Annecy (0-1) on the penultimate day.
“I don’t want to give false hope. We are working on the three scenarios,” acknowledged the Girondin president, who has already invested 60 million euros of his own money since 2021. The first is to find a last-minute partner. We have been approached by many people but who, unfortunately, do not have the means,” he said.
A “Strasbourg-style” scenario?
Let us be clear, however, that the possibility of finding a shareholder capable of filling such a hole in a very short time is, at best, improbable. “The second option is the liquidation and disappearance of the club,” continued Lopez, who assures that he is doing everything to avoid it. “Finally, there is the example of the Strasbourg-type rescue, with a move to lower divisions, giving themselves a two- or three-year break to rebuild.”
Lopez is referring here to the example of RC Strasbourg, which was relegated to National 3 (fifth division) in 2011 after filing for bankruptcy, then returned from hell to Ligue 1 in 2017. Bastia, relegated to the same level in 2017, has also stabilised in Ligue 2 since then. Other clubs – with less prestige and track record, admittedly – have never recovered from these administrative relegations, such as Le Mans or Tours.
In any case, the Girondins and their 69 seasons in Ligue 1 (only OM has done better) would then experience the most dizzying fall in their long professional history, since 1937. And Gérard Lopez would conclude his three years as club president with a catastrophic record, with, in addition to the potential disappearance of the men’s section, the relegation of the women’s team, which went from the Champions League to the second division in two years.
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