It’s a village like thousands we see in France, with its handful of shops, its river which crosses the small town and its 513 inhabitants, according to the last INSEE census. There is also this talc quarry which has made its reputation in Ariège, nestled at an altitude of 1,600 m and which employs its share of local residents. But above all there is this football club, with a (recent) glorious past, but which today survives in the anonymity of Pool B of the R1 Occitanie championship.
Ten years ago to the day, Luzenac, supported by an entire department, signed one of the most meritorious sporting performances of the National Championship. With a budget well below the contenders declared for the rise (Paris FC, Fréjus, Strasbourg, etc.), the club validated its accession to Ligue 2 on the field by beating Boulogne (1-0) on April 18, 2014. “We have always had this football culture in Luzenac. In the 1980s, we had the third and fourth divisions, notes President Christophe Rodriguez. There is this desire from the management team and the municipal team to continue to bring football to life there, as a showcase. »
For the Christmas snack with the football school, it’s not the club that will bring the inflatable structures. We’ll work it out, another Santa Claus will take care of him…
But there have been legal and administrative setbacks. The move was initially refused on financial grounds, before the club won its case. Then, the Professional Football League (LFP) banned accession to the club, on the grounds that it did not have a stadium “to regulatory safety standards”.
Resigned, the management ended up asking for reinstatement in National. Refusal of the authorities, again. World champion goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, who served as general manager, has left his post. The first team disappeared and the club only continued to exist through its reserve, in DHR, in 7e national level.
“There is always this trauma, which is there every day, Christophe Rodriguez still breathes. But we try to move forward even if we, the elders, talk about it regularly among ourselves. » All the more infuriating since in 2020, the Council of State agreed with the leaders, and…
