It was already four years ago. Then relegated sportingly to L2, the Sporting Club de Bastia would finally land four levels lower, in National 3: 30 million euros in debt, bankruptcy, 50 employees on the floor, everything to (re) build. Saturday, at 3 pm, at the Armand-Cesari stadium, the “Sporting Club de la Corse”, as Guillaume Longo likes to call it, secretary general of the Socios étoiles club bastiais, will find, after a long road, the professional world against Nîmes. , all fresh descended from L1.
Of the workforce present at the end of the 2016-2017 season, only one man remains: Gilles Cioni. “I went from L1 to N3 and from N3 to L2, tells 20 minutes the former full-back, who ended his career this season after a big injury, but who joined the Bastia staff. Saturday, there will be a twinge of heart for having turned the page. I will surely be very moved, to see images from before, and at the same time a lot of pride to have allowed the club to regain its rank. “
A unique model with supporters
A rank that Sporting, which obtained its professional status on July 9, does not want to leave. “There is no obligation to go up to L1, but a virtual obligation to stay in L2”, assures 20 minutes Claude Ferrandi, the president of Bastia. This industrialist in the hydrocarbons sector has been at the head of the club since “what happened in 2017”, like a nightmare that we do not want to name. Since then, the club has been structured in the form of a cooperative society of collective interests (SCIC), with the supporters at the heart of the project, the Socios étoiles club bastiais.
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A i ghjucatori, u staff: entrate in a storia di u Sporting Club di #Bastia !
The professionalism book, opened in 1965 and closed in 2017, is now reopened thanks to you.
U populu turchinu è u populu corsu ricunniscenti 💙 pic.twitter.com/tNH2vXmX0c
– Socios Etoile Club Bastiais (@SECBSocios) May 10, 2021
“It’s a unique model, we own 20% of the club’s capital,” says Guillaume Longo to 20 minutes. We are consulted, we are forces of proposal and we have a right of scrutiny. We don’t agree on everything, but we always find arrangements. But can this model survive the professional world? “Me, I believe in it, answers tit for tat the socio n ° 7 of the SCB. There is a concrete model. We have a good relationship with the leaders, the discussions are constructive. “
Our vision has always been the same, continues Guillaume Longo. Let’s take the time to rebuild. We agree to spend three, four years in L2 if it is to put a solid foundation, with a training center, in which we are going to invest. The club must no longer be dependent on the sale of players, it must be financially independent by training its own players. “
Remember where the club came from
“The club must be made as less dependent as possible on sporting results,” adds Claude Ferrandi. With the training center, with a few subsidiaries of our cooperative society… ”The SCB has thus created its own communication agency, Corsicom, has developed its store and derivative products, and intends to continue its transformation to seek other resources, with in particular many projects around digital: e-sport, digital agora, open data… “We lacked credibility for a long time, but people are joining us more and more in the capital”, rejoices Claude Ferrandi.
In Bastia, we hope that this return to the professional world will not make us forget “where (re) comes the club”. From these years as amateurs, Gilles Cioni hopes that his former partners will keep a sense of humility: “We have been confronted with the lives of thousands of footballers who work next to the field. The only difference with the others is that we could have 3,000, 4,000 to 7,000 spectators at Furiani in N3. There will always be people like me, vigilant, so that those who arrive do not ignite. The few players who took themselves for divas in Bastia, it never went well. The most important is the club. The leaders pass, the supporters pass, the coat of arms remains. “
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The fervor also remains. SCB flags fly in the city, people evoke this return to L2… When Sporting goes, everything is fine. “There has always been incredible fervor,” says Gilles Cioni. Historically, in Corsica, in complicated times, the mobilization is present. People are eager to get back to the stadium. “
Before the season resumes, 5,000 people have already taken their season ticket. “But the health announcements have packed all that down a bit,” regrets Claude Ferrandi. Add to that a temperature above 30 ° C and by Saturday at 3 p.m. Furiani should not be filled. “There will still be a great atmosphere. “