The DFCO, 12th in Ligue 2, could not do better than a 0-0 draw at Bastia last weekend. Frustrating, when you know the ambitions of a rapid recovery in Ligue 1. To put things into perspective, you have to look back to a not so distant past., when the DFCO did not yet exist – and professionalism was just a sweet dream. Monday, February 21, 2022, we took a 24-year leap back in 100% DFCO. Back in 1998, when the DFCO was created, with our guest André Royer, founding member as president of Dijon FC, a club which merged with the Cercle dijonnais at the time.
“The click: a Coupe de France match against Monaco”
On France Blue Burgundy, André Royer returned to the origins of the DFCO. “The trigger was a match for Dijon FC in the Coupe de France against Monaco (2-1 defeat for the Dijonnais after extra time), the stadium was full. With two leaders of the Cercle Dijonnais, we said ‘we have to do something for Dijon’. We thought about the merger. We agreed, we had a first meeting of four the next day, we worked for more than three months on the statutes. It was not in secret, but discreet “.
A balancing act beginsto constitute a governing body and achieve the merger of the two clubs of the city, which then evolve into CFA (equivalent to National 2): “We agreed on the statutes: six representatives of the Circle, six of Dijon FC, six outsiders, with the obligation to elect the president in these six outsiders”. Which will be the case, with Bernard Gnecchi, president of the DFCO between 1998 and 2012. “A long journey, we had to hold extraordinary general meetings”says André Royer.
“They may have blown the papers a bit, I don’t know…”
The merger is approaching, but it remains to be accepted – and validated – within the clubs. “One voice against Dijon FC, remembers André Royer, but at the Circle it passed within three votes”. It passed…but with a little help. “For the GA of the Circle, two friends, leaders of the Circle, who were the assessors, for the three-vote majority, they may have blown a little on the papers. I don’t know, but it was done. ..”. A nice way of saying that the election may have been deliberately influenced in the direction of merging.“There is a prescription”he smiles today.
André Royer, proud to have himself proposed the name “Dijon football Côte-d’Or” which was finally chosen, also says that the USCD, Union Sportive des Cheminots Dijonnais, could have been merged! “I had asked the USCD, the football section agreed, but there was the veto of the omnisport, otherwise we would have merged with the USCD too”.
The puzzle of teams and fields
Once the merger is complete, it was necessary to organize the functioning of the club. And answer questions. Who to keep? “We said: ‘we absolutely keep all the leaders and players who want it’. We had 28 teams at the start of the first season, including 7 senior, from the department to the CFA. We had to put in place the technical staff”. Where to play? “The pitches, it was a fairly difficult event because 28 teams, with the pitches of the time … at Poussots, there was a very defective synthetic hope. The U19s, played on an indoor pitch of the Velodrome, that is to say!”.
– Jerome Drouin