The silence that followed the news surely says as much about the dramatic state of the Girondins de Bordeaux as it does about the attention paid to women’s professional football. Relegated to the second division at the end of the 2023-2024 season, the Bordelaises were excluded from the national championships by the National Management Control Directorate (DNCG), the financial policeman of French football, on September 5. A week later, on Thursday, September 12, they learned that the club would not appeal the decision, thus condemning its women’s section to the amateur world, Regional 1.
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In a message posted on social media on Saturday, Olympique Lyonnais striker and first Ballon d’Or winner in history, Ada Hegerberg, expressed her emotion “indifference” with which the information was received. A “Shame, in 2024, the year of the Olympic Games in France”insists the Norwegian, bringing ” All [s]we support » to the players.
Some 1.2 million euros were needed for the Bordeaux team to be able to start again for an additional season. A sum that Sphera Partners LLP, a British consortium long considered as a possible buyer, was ultimately unable to guarantee, making the women’s team collateral damage in the troubles of the men’s first team, administratively demoted from Ligue 2 to National in July for financial reasons, then to National 2 after being placed in receivership by the commercial court.
The Girondins management, which thought it would no longer have to manage this section, did not reintegrate it into its judicial recovery plan. Questioned by So Footthe new vice-president of the sports structure, Arnaud De Carli, sticks to an economic story: “The club is sick. We’re not sacrificing the girls, we’re trying to save a club.” The support of the “Girondins Socios” supporters, local authorities and also private stakeholders was not enough.
First day postponed
However, this is the club’s most competitive section, for several years now. During the 2021-2022 season, the Bordeaux team was still playing in the Champions League. The passage of several French internationals – Viviane Asseyi, Charlotte Bilbault, Eve Périsset – or other players who have blossomed under the scapular jersey – starting with the Jamaican Khadija Shaw (2019-2021), who has just been crowned footballer of the year under the Manchester City colours – illustrate the quality of the structure.
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The squad had already been affected by relegation to the second division, and the relegation to amateur will logically deprive the team of its best players. Young midfielder Hillary Diaz, 20, has already joined Inter Milan, while her elder Laura Bourgoin, 31, left for Marseille. Those who stayed were as much in search of answers as new opportunities. Like the experienced Andréa Lardez, 30, at the club since 2016, who followed the case closely during the summer. “I am waiting, like all of you, for news”the defender continued, before the Girondins gave up appealing the DNCG’s decision.
The Regional 1 championship was due to open this weekend, and the reserve team of the “Girondines”, qualified sportingly, was due to face, Sunday at 3 p.m., the Pôle palois. But all the matches were finally postponed, pending a more than welcome clarification, as much for the authorities as the players.
