The silence that followed the news surely says as much about the dramatic state of Girondins de Bordeaux as it does about the attention paid to women’s professional football. Sportingly relegated to the second division at the end of the 2023-2024 season, the Bordeaux team was excluded from the national championships by the national department of management control (DNCG), the financial police of French football, on September 5. A week later, on Thursday, September 12, they learned that the club would not appeal the decision, thus condemning its women’s section to the amateur world, Regional 1.
In a message posted on social media on Saturday, Olympique Lyonnais striker and first ever Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg expressed her emotion. “indifference” with which the information was received. “What a shame, in 2024, the year of the Olympic Games in France”The Norwegian insists, bringing ” All [s]we support » to the players.
It took around 1.2 million euros for the Bordeaux team to leave for another season. A sum that Sphera Partners LLP, a British consortium long considered a possible buyer, was ultimately unable to guarantee, making the women’s team collateral damage to the setbacks of the first men’s team, administratively relegated from Ligue 2 to the National in July for financial reasons, then in National 2 after being declared a receiver by the commercial court.
The Girondins management, which thought it would no longer have to manage this section, did not reincorporate it into its legal recovery plan. Asked about Then footThe new vice-president of the sports structure, Arnaud De Carli, sticks to an economic narrative: “The club is sick there. We are not sacrificing girls, we are trying to save a club.” The support of the Girondins Partners, local authorities and private actors will not have been sufficient.
The first day postponed
However, this is the most competitive section of the club for several years. During the 2021-2022 season, the Bordeaux team still competed in the Champions League. The steps of several French internationals – Viviane Asseyi, Charlotte Bilbault, Eve Périsset – or other players who flourished under the scapular – starting with the Jamaican Khadija Shaw (2019-2021), recently crowned with the title of footballer of the year under the colours of Manchester City – illustrate the quality of the structure.
The squad had already been damaged by relegation to the second division, and relegation to amateur will naturally deprive the team of its best players. Young midfielder Hillary Diaz, 20, has already joined Inter Milan, while their eldest Laura Bourgoin, 31, has left for Marseille. Those who stayed were looking for both answers and new opportunities. Like the experienced Andréa Lardez, 30, at the club since 2016, who followed the matter closely during the summer. “I am waiting, like all of you, for news”the defender said again, before the Girondins gave up appealing the DNCG’s decision.
The Regional 1 championship was to open this weekend and the Girondins’ second team, which was ranked in the league, was to face Pôle Pau on Sunday at 3pm. But all meetings were ultimately postponed, pending a clarification that was much welcomed by both the authorities and the players.
