the town hall of Étampes suspends its subsidies to its football club due to “irregularities”

The town hall of Étampes, which denounces “irregularities”, has decided to suspend the subsidies granted to the football club in its municipality.

For FC Étampes, it’s a cold shower. The town hall has decided to temporarily suspend subsidies paid to the local football club, due to administrative and accounting “irregularities”.

“What were these subsidies that we paid for for three years used for?” asks Marie-Claude Girardeau, first deputy at the town hall of Étampes, at the microphone of BFM Paris Île-de-France. The City complains of “missing documents” for the period from 2020 to 2022. According to the elected official, this corresponds to the arrival of a new management team at the head of the club.

An audit carried out after “irregularities”

After “numerous changes made” including the fact that the club “no longer paid for young people's equipment”, parents of players alerted the town hall, reports Marie-Claude Girardeau. “They questioned the club’s leaders at a general meeting and did not get the answers they wanted, they had the impression that there were irregularities.”

When the town hall asked the club to provide the accounting statements, “it hardly provided us with any,” maintains the elected official. An audit is then launched. This audit, partial due to the lack of documents, “revealed irregularities”, continues the deputy, without giving their nature. “The mayor (Franck Marlin) then decided to launch investigations to alert the league and see things clearly.”

Contested calculation methods

For the club, the calculation methods carried out during the audit are not correct. “They multiplied the price of the license by the number of licensees without taking into account the pricing advantages for siblings for example,” underlines the board of directors to the Parisian.

The subsidies, worth an annual amount of around €40,000, are thus suspended during the investigation. When the results of the procedures come out, “we will act”, assures the elected official.

For Marie-Claude Girardeau, stopping this subsidy does not present “at all” a risk for the financial survival of the club. “If the club had provided us with the documents, there would not even have been a need for an audit. We asked for clarity.”

In a few years, the club has gone from the regional level, in R3 until the 2021-22 season, to the middle of the D2 table, i.e. the 10th national level, this season. The club has 23 teams in all categories and nearly 500 members.