how FC Sochaux rebuilt itself locally after coming close to disappearing last summer

It’s a story to rekindle the extinguished flame of those nostalgic for the football of yesteryear. To wring the necks of fatalists for whom football business remains the only alternative. On the verge of disappearance last summer, FC Sochaux-Montbéliard survives. And even more than that. Administratively demoted to National 1 in the off-season then saved by local investors, the Franche-Comté club plays, to everyone’s surprise, the leading roles in the championship. He also reconnects with his glorious past with an epic in the Coupe de France where he hosts Rennes, Tuesday February 6 at 9 p.m., in the round of 16. After Lorient and Reims, Sochaux will try to bring down a third Ligue 1 club.

“It’s a permanent miracle”, immediately admits its president Jean-Claude Plessis, from his yellow-carpeted office, below the Bonal stadium. The legendary venue, nestled between the city center of Montbéliard and the Stellantis factories (formerly Peugeot, former owner of the club), saw its 20,000 seats find takers in 48 hours for the Cup poster. There were 12,000 four days earlier, for a championship match against Red Star (2-2). A craze in line with the Dantesque qualification against Reims in the previous round (2-2, 5-4 on penalties).

Almost 80 years old, Plessis has seen others, “and in particular a 4-0 against Dortmund” in 2003. “But there, it was gut-wrenching”, admits the president, in tears after qualifying against Rémois. In office during the club’s last prosperous period (1999-2008), with two trophies (2004 League Cup, 2007 Coupe de France) and regularity at the top of the Ligue 1 table, the manager agreed to return at the helm in mid-August with his historic partner, Pierre Wantiez.

“What would have become of the stadium, the traders, the hotels around it?”

Sochaux, abandoned by its Chinese shareholder Nenking with a hole of 22 million euros, was preparing to close its doors. Understand, to file for bankruptcy and return, at least, to National 3. The end of a slow agony since the sale of the club by Peugeot in 2014, as soon as the relegation – sporting – in Ligue 2 approved. Nine years in the second division later, the FCSM – due to haphazard management – was on the verge of death.

Filing for bankruptcy then led to the loss of the training center and dramatic social consequences. “What would have become of the stadium, the traders, the hotels around it? We are already in a somewhat devastated city”, asks Plessis seven months later. It is not this owner of a refreshment bar, in full installation on the eve of the match against Rennes, who will contradict him: “If the club filed for bankruptcy, it was over for me.”

Supporters, entrepreneurs, local celebrities and elected officials then moved forward together to try to guarantee the club a place in N1, where the DNCG (National Directorate of Management Control) demoted it on June 22 despite a 9th place in Ligue 2. A first rescue plan, presented by Romain Peugeot, failed at the beginning of August. “We launched a fundraiser at the end of July, and tried to mobilize companies and former players”, remembers supporter Léna Chatonnay, member of the Sociochaux association. This initiative proposed, for a minimum contribution of 50 euros, to enter into the capital of the club via a model of socios widespread in Bastia. “People sacrificed themselves”testifies Fabrice Lefèvre, president of the Planète Sochaux supporters association.

“We were on the phone every day. During the summer holidays, I only thought about Sochaux”continues Léna Chatonnay. The enthusiasm is immense: 11,000 people responded to the call, mobilizing a total of 800,000 euros. The sum, although tidy, remains insufficient. That’s when Jean-Claude Plessis and Pierre Wantiez enter the track. “Two catalysts were needed, they united around them, traces Fabrice Lefèvre. We can only have confidence in them.”

“I called Pierre, we said ‘if you go, I’ll go’”, unfolds Plessis, until then retired in Brittany. Fifteen years after their departure, the tandem returns to Doubs and mobilizes its network to present a recovery plan. In ten days, they convinced 45 local investors and obtained a massive express subsidy from the public authorities to complete the budget. This is validated by the FFF, which formalizes the maintenance of FC Sochaux-Montbéliard in National on August 17.

A unique case of popular shareholding

The FCSM starts from scratch in an unknown division, which resumed a week earlier. It is then necessary to set up a team, dismantled with the administrative descent. The mix of young shoots from the training center and revengeful brawls, concocted by sports director Julien Cordonnier and coach Oswald Tanchot, are paying off.

In a championship that looks like a trap, with six descents for 18 teams, numerous structural costs and few economic benefits, the objective is to survive. But the results followed quickly, so that in mid-February, Sochaux was only five points behind second place, Martigues, with a game in hand. And openly talks about recovery, which would be welcome financially.

“We’re not out of the woods yet.admits Plessis. If we stay in N1, we will have to tighten our belts.” The president is not finished in his quest for shareholders, necessary to find the missing 6 million euros. “The club is still in danger, but the club will livehe continues. The shareholders are local people, they went to Bonal when they were children. They do this for philanthropy, not for financial reasons.”

FC Sochaux becomes AOC again

In the new board of directors, a place is thus reserved for Sociochaux, a unique case in France. “We have set ourselves the limit of never intervening on the athlete, above all we want to ensure that the property respects the FCSM”, assures Léna Chatonnay. The Montbéliard agglomeration also has a right of inspection. “We had total opacity under Nenkingdeplores its vice-president Alexandre Gauthier. We knew there was a deficit, but not to this extent. The truth was hidden from us.”

More than the new sporting momentum – all in all relative for a club twice champion of France in the 1930s – the Sochaux people appreciate this relocation of the project. “Every day, people talk to me about it in the streetagrees Mecha Bazdarevic, former player and coach of the club. In Ligue 2, they were losing ground.” This is because in Sochaux, even more than elsewhere, a project carried out by investors outside the inner circle is difficult to envisage. “Even if Peugeot is no longer there, Sochaux represents the sporting emblem of Franche-Comtécontinues supporter Fabrice Lefèvre. No place brings together as much as Bonal in the region.”

“When we go on vacation, people don’t know Montbéliard, but Sochaux does! It’s an identity marker for the area.”

Alexandre Gauthier, deputy at the town hall and agglomeration of Montbéliard

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“The best players in the club’s history are local or were trained herecontinues Bazdarevic. Pedretti, Frau, Mathieu, Genghini…” And the former Bosnian midfielder, 308 matches from 1987 to 1996, who remained living in the region, continued: “The city lived to the rhythm of the club. The president took us to see the Peugeot workers, we lived with them. Sochaux is a club that cannot operate on a national scale.”

Mecha Bazdarevic, however, remains measured. “Football has changed enormously sincehe nuances. It’s complicated economically: how many cities like ours have their place in Ligue 1? We need popular football, but adapted to 2024.” Fabrice Lefèvre is more categorical. “Sochaux demonstrated that in the era of football business, there was another way. Complicated, but it exists”, he savors. The hearts of the Cubs continue to beat there.