FSG have ended takeover talks throwing the club into uncertainty
French giants Girondins de Bordeaux have filed for bankruptcy after takeover talks with Liverpool owners FSG fell through leaving the club’s future uncertain.
Yesterday evening the club announced that it would be losing its professional status after relegation into the third division of French football and have this morning announced their bankruptcy as per BBC Sport.
The French giants have found themselves £75m in debt with a deficit of £45m.
Les Girondins had hoped to wipe clear the red with a potential new owner in the form of Liverpool’s American consortium owners FSG, however, talks ultimately never materialised into action and now the club are facing down void of becoming a semi-professional football club.
Bordeaux are one of France’s most successful football team winning Ligue 1 six times, the most recently in 2009, while also boasting four victories in the Coupe de France.
The team from the ninth most populous city in France have been relegated before, playing and winning Ligue 2 in 1992, however the club have reached new lows after relegation to France’s third tier.
In France, the third tier is considered semi-professional with some teams requesting to maintain their professional status upon relegation while others decide to renounce it, losing their pro status along the way.
In a communication released last night by the football team, the club said it would not attempt to keep its professional status due to “the lack of time before the start of the new season.”
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The club also admitted that, in light of “inescapable” sanctions to come, it would be wiser to lose its pro status and restructure in France’s third division.
Upon relegation to the third division, all professional contracts are required to be terminated meaning a mass exodus of players from the club.
Bordeaux have however committed to continuing to promote its youth teams.
Players such as Zinedine Zidane, Bixente Lizarazu, Aurelien Tchouameni and Jules Kounde, have all played for the club.
