The painful journey of a six-time champion – from stardom to dust

If you ask football fans which club has the most French championship titles in its trophy cabinet, the answer is not too surprising. It is Paris Saint-Germain with 12. Things get more exciting if you add an additional clause to the same question: which non-major league club has the most Ligue 1 trophies?

In this case, the answer is six-time champion Bordeaux, whose last title came in the 2008/09 season and who also played in Europe in the 2018/19 season. But since then, things have only gone downhill for them and they are currently playing in the fourth (!) league.

What happened to Bordeaux and why they are in such a dire position is what we’ll analyze in this OlyBet.TV article. Because although the club’s decline may have begun during the corona era, the foundation for it was laid earlier.

A change of ownership resulting from a thirst for success

For a long time, Bordeaux was owned by local media company M6 Metropole Television, but when wealthy foreign investors entered the French football market – here we are primarily referring to the owners of Paris Saint-Germain and AS Monaco – M6 also realized that the club needed to pump more money into it.

However, they didn’t have it, so capital was raised from elsewhere: in July 2018, shortly after Bordeaux finished sixth in Ligue 1, General American Capital Partners, or GACP, put up 100 million euros for a majority stake.

These were US investors, represented by Joseph DaGrosa. What did they have to say? Well, they were full of glorious promises! Namely, the confident businessmen promised to steer Bordeaux back to the Champions League in three years!

But that didn’t work out…

The second change of ownership

The 2018/19 season ended in 14th place, and when the following autumn also started poorly, the businessmen fell out with each other. The result? Bordeaux’s majority stake was transferred to King Street Capital Partners (KSCP) – a US investment firm that had actually lent the businessmen money to buy the club.

Although their ambitions were not quite as grand, they also promised to “guarantee Bordeaux’s stability and keep them on an ambitious course.”

However, the fine words proved to be empty again, as just a year and a half later, Bordeaux had sunk deep into debt, after which King Street announced that they no longer wanted to do business with the club.

It should be emphasized here, however, that the financial difficulties did not only result from the decisions of the investment company, but the very large club’s fortunes were also affected by the empty stdiums during the coronavirus period and the blow that hit the whole of France when the Spanish media giant Mediapro abandoned the television deal, which should have brought the league – and thus the clubs – 780 million euros just a month before the start of the new season…

Third change of ownership

But let these variables be as they were. The fact was that Bordeaux changed ownership again in July 2021. Now it was time for Gérard López, who had an extremely dubious reputation, but who also had the initial money to boost the club a little.

However, this money helped little, because Bordeaux ended the 2021/22 season in an even deeper hole. In every sense. They were placed last in the French top flight and, to top it off, their financial problems had grown so great that the local association wanted to relegate them to the fourth level instead of the top flight.

However, they were able to get out of this because, with the help of the league, a separate payment and debt plan was put together, which should have kept their noses afloat… although the same plan meant a transfer ban, which made it difficult for the club to aspire to return to the top flight.

Thus, they were the first to be relegated from Ligue 1 in the 2022/23 season: by three points. Bordeaux didn’t get a second chance, however, because in that one season in the premier league, Lopez and Co. had managed to run into even more financial difficulties. Namely, their turnover that season decreased by as much as a third compared to the previous one.

No more mercy

However, this meant even greater restrictions and payment plans, despite which the results also suffered. In 2023/24, they were still in the top flight, but since it was still a fruitless struggle to get the club back on their feet, the French league had no choice but to declare the six-time national champion bankrupt and relegate it to the fourth league.

Thus, Bordeaux currently plays in the Championnat National and lives and trains in rented arenas, because maintaining its own base turned out to be too expensive. Youth work, however, will continue and this is one of the few bright spots with an eye on the future.

Namely, Bixente Lizarazu, Jules Kounde, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Marouane Chamakh and Gabriel Obertan, who spent an infamous six months at Manchester United, have all gotten their kick start from the academy.

Whether and how quickly the club could start to rise again and return to the top league with the support of the following youngsters (or their sale), time will tell.