This Wednesday, May 11 is a decisive day in the history of the Girondins de Bordeaux. Nice receives Saint-Étienne, at 7 p.m., on behalf of the 36th day of Ligue 1. If Saint-Etienne, play-off, wins, the fate of the Girondins will be sealed: they will go down to Ligue 2, after 31 consecutive years in the league. ‘elite. Back in 1991, the year of administrative relegation for the club, against a backdrop of legal procedures.
1991: the year of the worst
After 80s marked by glory, during which the Girondins won three Champion titles, two French Cups and two European Cup semi-finals, the 90s were set to be quite different. The worries come in 1989 with the revelations of questionable management of the finances of the Girondins. The following year, the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation against Claude Bez, the chairman, for forgery and use of forgery, concealment and breach of trust. A few months later, he was charged with fraud, breach of trust, complicity in forgery and concealment of misuse of corporate assets.
As of June 30, 1990, the club’s accounting deficit amounts to 242 million francs. A few months later, Jean-Pierre Derose, vice-president of the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and mediator in the Girondins crisis, claims to have found partners to save the club and promises to present his rescue plan quickly. If he succeeds after long months of saving the club from compulsory liquidation, the maintenance in the first division is far from certain. Despite their 10th place in the standings and the unfailing support of Mayor Chaban-Delmas, who notably had a subsidy of 8.3 million euros adopted for the Girondins in March 1991, the club was relegated a few months later, in July.
After being forced to resign, Claude Bez was finally convicted of fraud in 1994. He had already been imprisoned in 1992, like the then Girondins coach, Didier Couécou, for having embezzled 45 million francs from the club’s coffers, via a system of “true false invoices”. A fall in which the mayor of Bordeaux is half-trained: in an article dated November 29, 1990, the newspaper l’Express explains that Jacques Chaban-Delmas “will receive a damning report from the regional court of auditors on his negligence. At the risk of finding himself accountable de facto for the Girondins as honorary president and main funder of the club”.
1992: return to the first division
For the 1991-1992 season, the club was managed by Jean-Didier Lange and Alain Afflelou who bet on an immediate rise in the first division. To train the team, slightly reorganized, Gernot Rohr resumed the post of coach temporarily occupied in 1990. After an epic season, marked by the sharing of the first place with Strasbourg, the bet is held: the Girondins end the season 91- 92 Holy second division champions of France.