The fate of Is Girondins de Bordeaux sealed? The club saw, Tuesday, July 5, its administrative demotion in National 1 confirmed by the appeal committee of the National Management Control Department (DNCG), the body responsible for monitoring the accounts of professional football clubs in France.
However, elected Girondins still want to believe in another outcome. Alain Anziani, socialist president of the metropolis of Bordeaux, calls on the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, to seize the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). According to him, he “there are avenues of appeal that are possible“. Same echo from the side of Pierre Hurmic, EELV mayor of Bordeaux, affirmed that the “club leaders [voulaient] appeal to the administrative court to have this decision suspended”.
For its part, the club published a press release on Tuesday, announcing “to appeal” against the decision of the DNCG, without giving more details for the moment. How can the Girondins save themselves? Answer with Antoine Semeria, lawyer and expert in sports law.
What remedies are still available in Bordeaux?
The club has the possibility of contesting the decision of the appeal committee within 15 days before the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), a conciliation body whose opinion of the conciliator is not binding. . This is the first step. “In view of the urgency, he can also seize, in parallel, the administrative court. But they must in all cases seize the CNOSF. It is a compulsory prior recourse”, specifies Antoine Semeria.
How are these procedures carried out?
Enter the CNOSF will not suspend the effects of the appeal board’s decision. “What will temporarily suspend the effects of the decision, until the proposal for conciliation, is the appointment of a conciliator”develops Antoine Semiria. These conciliators are “usually magistrates, lawyers or professors of law”, he completes.
The conciliator, appointed from a list drawn up by the CNOSF, will examine Bordeaux’s arguments. Then, it will have two possibilities: “Cit to say that the appeal committee seems to have been mistaken, and therefore to propose to the FFF to review its position, or that of sticking to the decision of the appeal committee”, continues the lawyer. If the conciliator proposes to the FFF to review its position, the latter may oppose it within 15 days. “If she opposes it, the decision of the appeal committee will resume all its effects”, notes Antoine Semeria. According to this sports law expert, given “the urgency of the situation”, the conciliator “will probably be appointed at the end of the week”, for a “conciliation next week”.
“If the conciliator follows the decision of the appeal commission, the Girondins will, in all likelihood, seize the administrative court of what is called a summary-suspension. This summary will suspend the effects of the decision of the ‘appeal until a judge rules urgently, at the request of the club’, details the lawyer. This judge will then have the task of examining two main points: on the one hand “ensure that the emergency condition is characterized” And on the other hand “judging whether there is any doubt as to the legality of the contested decision”, says the lawyer.
What are the chances of these appeals succeeding?
The seizure of the CNOSF represents a real chance for the Bordeaux club. This recourse has, in the past, already saved clubs from relegation, as in 2015 with RC Lens. “At the time, Sochaux lost the possibility of going up to Ligue 1, because the conciliator had proposed that RC Lens be maintained. A dispute ensued. But RC Lens had been saved by the conciliator, whose proposal to keep him in Ligue 1 had been accepted by the FFF”, recalls Antoine Semeria.
By seizing the administrative court, the club must “file a request for interim relief and in parallel, a request on the merits, in other words in proceedings to have the decision annulled”, explains Antoine Semeria. “If they don’t win in summary proceedings, in my opinion, the club’s chances of success will be considerably reduced. Because the deadlines for having a decision on the merits are too long and would not correspond to the sporting calendar of a recovery. championship in a few weeks”, he further details.
If the Girondins do not win the interim suspension, they will have to wait, in “three, four, five years possible compensation by the FFF if ever there is a cancellation, for the damage suffered as a result of the demotion and the probable bankruptcy filing”, adds Antoine Semeria.