“It's the first time I've seen that”… The president of JA Drancy criticizes the attitude of FC Nantes, which left with its share of the revenue

On Saturday, the Ligue 1 club easily eliminated their opponent playing four divisions lower (4-0) and did them no favors.

When a professional club faces amateurs in the Coupe de France, it is customary to leave its share of the revenue. FC Nantes decided not to honor this tradition, Saturday December 21, after its easy victory against JA Drancy (4-0) at the Bauer stadium, in Saint-Ouen. In the columns of Le Parisien, Alain Melaye, the president of the Ile-de-France club playing in National 3 (fifth division) had very little taste for the attitude of the Canaries and more particularly that of their president Waldemar Kita.

“We are going to make a transfer to the people of Nantes of 13,000 euros while the club has a budget of several tens of millions of euros”points out the latter. If 3,400 spectators filled the Bauer stands, the venue was rented for this great occasion. JA Drancy usually plays at the Charles Sage stadium, which is not approved for the match. “For us, the trip to the Bauer stadium and all the expenses incurred will leave us with a hole of 40,000 eurosreports President Alain Melaye. We will probably have to pay a large protective net to the Red Star manager because the Ultras Nantais burned him after the match..

Beyond the financial aspect, Alain Melaye regrets the lack of communication with the leaders of FC Nantes. “I was told that President Waldemar Kita was there but he never came to see us. They (the Nantes management) also did not want to come to the post-match reception. This is the first time I've seen this and yet we faced several professional clubs in the Coupe de France. I remember very pleasant discussions with Carlo Molinari (former president of Metz) or Jean-Pierre Rivère (president of Nice). I didn't need to ask them to give us their share of the revenue.” regrets the president of the JAD.

Contacted by Le Parisien, Waldemar Kita wanted to clarify things. “We had decided that we would remove our travel, bus and hotel costs from our share of revenue,” he confides. “And if there had been a balance on this share, we would have left it to the club. But this part didn't even pay half of our costs”he clarified, adding that he had not been invited “in no living room.”

FC Nantes is regularly singled out for not sharing its revenue. This was the case in 2023 with AF Virois or with Vitré in 2019. Other professional clubs have however respected the tradition in recent days. This is particularly the case of Stade Lavallois, which won on penalties against Mérignac on Friday or LOSC. A gesture greeted on Twitter by its victim, FC Rouen.