The sad tale of Bordeaux

Sad news from France in the last few weeks, as the storied Girondins de Bordeaux had to file for bankruptcy in order to avoid “heavy additional sanctions” over the club’s ongoing financial difficulties.

This dramatic step also entailed giving up the club’s professional status, terminating the contracts of all its players and closing one of France’s leading youth academies, which highlighted the colossal mismanagement over the last few years.

The French financial watchdog, the Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG), had already provisionally relegated Bordeaux to the Championnat National (the third tier) after the club was unable to provide financial guarantees ahead of next season.

It beggars belief that this could have happened to one of the most storied football clubs in France that has won the league on no fewer than six occasions with the most recent title coming in 2008/09.

That qualified Bordeaux for the following season’s Champions League, where they got as far as the quarter-finals, having finished ahead of both Bayern Munich and Juventus in the group stage.

However, there then followed three disastrous changes in ownership, which culminated in the club’s relegation to Ligue 2 in 2021/22 after finishing rock bottom, having only won six games and conceding a horrific 91 goals.

For many years Bordeaux were owned by M6 Metropole Television, but the media company decided that the club needed more capital to compete at the highest level, as they were concerned about the arrival of wealthy investors at Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco.

First out of the blocks were General American Capital Partners, led by chief executive Joseph DaGrosa, who bought the club for €100m in July 2018, i.e. just after Bordeaux had finished a respectable sixth in Ligue 1.

By November 2019 GCAP had fallen out with US investment firm King Street Capital Partners, who had provided the funding for DaGrosa’s involvement in Bordeaux (and actually held the majority shareholding).   This led to KCP taking full control of the club.

Less than a year and a half later, King Street put Bordeaux into administration, stating that they “no longer wished to support the club and finance its current and future needs.”  This was justified as follows: “The economic context linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and the withdrawal of Mediapro has caused an unprecedented drop in revenues for French football clubs. These events come on top of the financial consequences that already hit clubs hard last season due to the cessation of the championship and the resulting loss of income.”

Following King Street’s withdrawal, Bordeaux changed hands again in July 2021, when Spanish-Luxembourgish entrepreneur Gérard López took the reins. The DNCG had provisionally demoted the club to Ligue 2, but funding from the new owner allowed it to remain in the top flight.

It’s fair to say that López is something of a colourful character, who is notorious in France after his damaging ownership of Lille between January 2017 and December 2020, which ended up with him having to sell the club after racking up hefty losses and accumulating a lot of debt.

As the clock ticked towards the proverbial five to midnight, Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) entered talks to acquire Bordeaux, but they ultimately opted not to pursue discussions. The French club said that this decision was explained in particular by “the significant cost of the stadium in the years to come, but also by the general economic context of French football.”

Given FSG’s desire to implement a multi-club ownership model, which was one of the conditions for Mike Edwards’ return as chief executive of football, this again highlighted the magnitude of the problems under the bonnet at Bordeaux.

One of Bordeaux’s biggest issues was that their revenue fell off a cliff, more than halving in just four years from €71.3m to €32.8m. However, even before this significant decrease, their revenue had essentially flatlined, largely remaining within a narrow range of €65m to €71m.

Even with all their problems, Bordeaux have continued to attract crowds above 20,000, demonstrating that this is a well-supported club, though unsurprisingly the 21,633 average attendance last season was down nearly 8,000 (26%) from the high of 29,267 in 2009/10.

These are difficult times for French football, mainly thanks to the devastating reduction in the TV rights, which means that all clubs are facing significant financial challenges. However, the sad demise of Bordeaux was very largely of their own making.

After a very long period at the top of the game, in a classic case of “be careful what you wish for”, they have had to suffer three different owners in just six years.

The Americans were came and went, but the club then leapt out of the frying pan into the fire. Given Gérard López’s track record at other clubs, most notably at Lille, his arrival raised eyebrows and the worst fears have proved well founded.

However, the city’s mayor has not yet given up, stating, “multiple contacts that I have had for several days confirm to me that other options were and would still be possible to save the club.”

Indeed, they are appealing against the second demotion, arguing that the club’s demotion should only be to the Championnat National, while a local consortium is reportedly trying to put together a financial package that will satisfy the DNCG.

Clearly, this is all a bit last minute, given that the 2024-25 season is due to kick-off in less than a week, but Bordeaux might request the postponement of their first three matches in order to have enough time to hear the appeal (and indeed put together a team).