Ten parliamentarians from Gironde, denouncing “the death warrant” that the Girondins de Bordeaux risk, asked the Minister of Sports on Monday to “seize the subject” and to receive a delegation from the club, demoted to the third division, whose administrative demotion to National was confirmed on appeal last week.
In an open letter addressed to Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the senators and deputies affirm that “we cannot resolve ourselves” to “the death warrant of our club, its judicial liquidation”. “It would be deeply unfair if a club which provides numerous guarantees could not be authorized to join the second men’s division by making the required corrections”, add the elected signatories, including the radical Nathalie Delattre, vice-president of the Senate.
Sportingly relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of last season, Bordeaux was downgraded to National (3rd division) by the DNCG, the French football management controller, after examining the club’s finances. “While the club obviously wishes to seize the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) in order to propose conciliation to the French Football Federation (…), the government must take up the subject”, adds the letter. “Three hundred direct jobs and at least as many indirect jobs depend on it, and it’s a whole territory that intends to fight”, write the elected officials, calling on the minister to receive “as soon as possible, a delegation mandated by the club” .
“To condemn the club is to put an end to the activity of a women’s team which has several international players in its ranks”, notes the text in the middle of the Women’s Euro in England. The letter is also signed by presidential majority deputies Thomas Cazenave, Florent Boudié, Pascal Lavergne, Sophie Mette, Sophie Panonacle and Éric Poulliat and senators Alain Cazabonne (Centrist Union), Florence Lassarade (LR) and Monique de Marco (EELV).