Denis Le Saint, co-president of Stade Brestois with his brother Gérard, was the first to launch the idea in mid-September by mentioning the Stade de France in the event of a “ty zefs” play-off in the Champions League. While the Breton club has its ticket for the next round, the subject is now being debated between supporters, management and the athlete.
What if the joke launched by entrepreneur Denis Le Saint to his teams turned into reality? A few months ago, the manager of Stade Brestois mentioned playing the Champions League, at least one match, at the Stade de France. A crazy idea?
With his brother co-president, Denis and Gérard Le Saint are not giving up and would like to take all of Brittany to Saint-Denis in mid-February, for the rest of the competition. But this option divides the supporters and the athlete is not really excited.
Guingamp is well suited to the locker room
Some players have said they feel very good at Guingamp, which avoids having to travel too far for them, the supporters and their families. Same story with Eric Roy who places himself as a competitor and once again proved Tuesday evening against PSV (1-0) that coming to play at Roudourou was complicated by preventing the best attack in Europe from scoring a single goal. PSV Eindhoven had always scored in 30 matches and a defeat on March 13, 2-0 against Dortmund, while since then Peter Bosz's men have met Paris, Ajax and Juventus.
Finally, we must not forget that to cover its costs, the Stade Brestois will almost have to succeed in filling the Stade de France, which is possible provided it meets a prestigious opponent. However, the draw on January 31 is a dozen days before the event, if Brest plays the first leg at home (February 11 or 12). The club took information to see if the dates would be available, the organization and the cost which is obviously judged to be out of proportion with Roudourou or Roazhon Park in Rennes, which would still require adjustments.
200,000 euros of work needed at Roazhon Park
Roazhon Park, which has the advantage of a larger capacity, 28,000 spectators compared to 16,000 at Roudourou, would be sold out without any worries. But development work should be carried out to meet the standards of the Champions League play-offs. According to our information, the amount would be around 200,000 euros to which must be added the rental of the stadium. A substantial investment to potentially only play one match.
Contrary to what we sometimes read, playing the play-offs at Guingamp is not impossible. This would even remain option number 1. Some additional arrangements (spaces for TV, hospitality, etc.) are necessary and would also result in the loss of even more places for supporters, with the contingent of places reserved for UEFA also increasing. Roudourou has already gone from 18,000 to less than 16,000 spectators in the Champions League configuration (15,778 Tuesday evening), and several hundred seats would still disappear from the ticket office. If the debate is lively internally, a decision will now have to be made quickly.
