Nancy relegated to National in chaos, or how the thistle club faded

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It’s been a long time since the Chardon of AS Nancy Lorraine has stinged many people. Cut off from its roots with an unfortunate sale, the club is now only the shadow of the one who won a Coupe de France with Michel Platini in 1978 and a League Cup in 2006.

Having fallen back into the anonymity of Ligue 2 for several years, the ASNL continues its slow agony and will evolve into National next season, after its match stopped on Friday April 22 against Quevilly-Rouen because of smoke bombs from Lorraine supporters, then that the Nancy were led 3-0 on their lawn. Without even waiting for the decision of the League on the continuation of these events, the ASNL announced its relegation. A look back at the events that plunged Nancy into an endless winter.

2017, relegation too many

To the west was Stade Rennais, the club in red and black that goes up and down. To the east, Nancy has long returned the image to him in the champion mirror of the elevators between the elite and the lower floor. From the year 2000 until now, the ASNL has spent 13 seasons in Ligue 2. Under the yoke of Pablo Correa, Nancy has nevertheless settled in the top flight for almost ten years with the key to a Coupe de la League in 2006 and a historic 4th place in the 2007-2008 season.

The emblematic coach of Nancy will return between 2013 and 2017 to bring the club back to Ligue 1. It will only last one season. On May 20, 2017, the evening of a victory for honor against Saint-Etienne (3-1), Nancy fell to the lower level. The beginning of Calvary.

2020: a sale that uproots the Thistle

Approached in early 2020 by the City Football Group (Emirati owner of Manchester City among others), AS Nancy Lorraine then thought of joining this group of clubs. But the Emiratis finally prefer ESTAC Troyes to ASNL, whose president Rousselot wants to get rid of, tired by 27 years of presidency and repeated financial patches to avoid administrative relegation. The emblematic Nancy leader finally gives up control during the winter of 2020.

Jacques Rousselot knew everything with Nancy. European epics, titles and relegations. After a first aborted sale in 2018 and a first handover to Jean-Michel Roussier, the historic president of the ASNL finally has his buyers. For ten million euros, the Lorraine club was bought by New City Capital, a consortium of Sino-American investors who already owned the clubs of Ostend (Belgian D1), Barnsley (English D2), Den Bosch (D2 Dutch), Esbjerg (Danish D2) and Thun (Swiss D2).

This sale destabilizes the club whose president Gauthier Ganaye, a thirty-year-old who lives in the north and who also chairs the Ostend club, is often conspicuous by his absence. Without a boss and without roots, the club is losing its footing at all levels. On the field, the team skates. Nancy is on the edge of the abyss.

A season in Hell

8th at the end of the 2021 season, Nancy does not expect to fall into the precipice so quickly. Artisan of the rise of Barnsley in the English second division, the German coach Daniel Stendel is called to the rescue by the shareholders to revive the team. Ten days later, ASNL still hasn’t won a match and is in last place in the Ligue 2 standings. Stendel is dismissed and replaced by Benoît Pedretti who will take over for more than three months.

Reserve coach at the start of the season, the former international does not feel in his place and lets his management know. He leaves the bench in mid-January. The hot potato then arrives in the hands of Albert Cartier, a former member of the house. Red lantern since the 5th day, Nancy still does not take off and remains on a victory in its last eleven matches when Quevilly-Rouen-Métropole arrives at Marcel-Picot.

But like the season, the last chance match turns into a nightmare. Nancy sinks and finds herself trailing 3-0 before the break. A rain of smoke caused two match interruptions before half-time. The match is definitely stopped for security reasons. The curtain falls. Without even waiting for a possible decision from the League on the follow-up to the events, the ASNL announced its own relegation. If the future of the club will be written in National, a first at this level since the creation of ASNL in 1967, it is more uncertain than ever.


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