Just over a week after a meeting with the French Football Federation and the Ministry of Sports, the Alsace Football District (DAF) launched a major communication campaign on Saturday 5 November to obtain its Exit from the Grand Eastern League
. His slogan : “#We are Ligue d’Alsace”. He hopes to see it displayed on all the Alsatian lawns.
Support from local presidents and politicians
“It’s a real boost that we put thereassumes Michel Aucourt, the president of the district. This slogan, we want to see it displayed on all the lawns. We will also take it up on social networks and flood well beyond Alsace. We want it to go much higher.”.
This campaign was launched at the end of the general meeting of football clubs in Hirtzfelden (Haut-Rhin). During this assembly, the two deputies Bruno Fuchs (Renaissance) and Raphaël Schellenberger (LR) took a stand in favor of an independent Alsace league, the latter even urging the Grand-Est league to stop obstructing the procedure. .
At the end of the meeting, several dozen club presidents rushed to the stand distributing the posters. “I made 40, but it won’t be enough. I have to make 400”rejoiced Michel Aucourt.
© Radio France
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Jules Hauss
Among the reasons given by the presidents for this exit there is first of all the administrative and the financial. “Our clubs play at regional and district level. The costs for the regional, which therefore depends on the Grand-Est league, are much more expensive. It has been done gradually and it is starting to become expensive”testifies Rémy Eckert, president of the Hirtzfelden club.
But in the mouths of many presidents, this Alsace Football League is especially a question of identity. “Alsace is still apart. We have no direct relations with the Ardennes, Champagne or Lorraine. I don’t know how they experience it, but Alsace has always been independent”justifies Fabrice Drouot, president of the Doller Sports Union
“The Minister of Sports does not want the Grand-Est League to be dismantled” – Albert Gemmrich, president of the LGEF
“I have heard a lot of talk about leaving, but I would like to be very clear: the minister does not want the Grand-Est League to be dismantled”responds for his part Albert Gemmrich, president of the Grand-Est League, also present at this meeting.
After the famous meeting which brought together all the players in the file on October 28, the option favored by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra would rather be that of a skills transfer. District and League must therefore meet in the coming weeks and propose a roadmap in January.
“But it’s going to be very complicated, with on the one hand a president who doesn’t want to let go and on the other a president who doesn’t want to let go either”, admits Michel Aucourt. According to him, the position of the minister and the federation can still change. “She has just arrived and launched an audit of the French football federation. Let’s wait for the end of the World Cup (November 20-December 18) and things will change.”
The ministry and the federation fear that the creation of an autonomous league sets a precedent and other leagues step into the breach. The district therefore relies in particular on the Élysée, not opposed to the creation of Alsatian sports leagues,
to change things.