From champions to third tier: How French giants Bordeaux lost everything

The club from the south-west of France are in steep decline. The owner, his erratic behaviour and poor management are the main culprits, or so the general public are saying, but the decline has also been caused by a combination of several key decisions by other officials and politicians, not least those responsible for what happened on the pitch. The wider economic situation did not help either.

In any case, pointing the finger at a specific culprit, although it is surely the businessman Gerard Lopez who bears the greatest responsibility, would be very black and white, to say the least. And it was simply not possible to save everything at the last minute.

Lopez enters the scene

It is the spring of 2021, and Europe is still dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bordeaux, who eventually finished 12th in Ligue 1, have been hit hard by the loss of revenue.

This resulted in an announcement in April by the American company King Street stating that it was no longer going to support the club. Thus, in June, Lopez arrived on the scene as the new owner. The now fifty-two-year-old Luxembourg-born businessman with Spanish roots, who also acquired Boavista that year, had a background mainly in motorsport, buying the Renault F1 Team in 2009 for instance. Football was new to him, a water he had not yet entered.

He dreamed of at least bringing European football back to his new club, which hadn't participated on that front since 2019, but instead, just a year later (in 2022), an entirely unexpected relegation to Ligue 2 took place, the first since the 1990/91 season.

Even then, Bordeaux were a thorn in the side of the DNCG (Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion), the authority that controls the financial flows and accounting of professional clubs in France. It should be noted that this institute is very unforgiving, dealing with virtually any irregularities quite harshly. A few weeks ago, for example, Ajaccio were also threatened with relegation from Ligue 2, but unlike Bordeaux, found a quick solution.

On June 14th, 2022, the DNCG administratively relegated Bordeaux to the Championnat National due to financial issues. Bordeaux appealed that decision - the word 'brutal' was used to describe it - and at the end of July, shortly before the start of the new season, got what they wanted.

Bordeaux now had only one goal, and that was to return to the top flight, but missed out by a whisker as the team finished three points behind second-placed Metz and six behind first-placed Le Havre. Ligue 1, unfortunately for the club, had reduced the number of participants from 20 to 18, so only the top two secured promotion. Who knows where the club would be now if they had managed to go up then?

It's 2023 and the club looks healthy from the outside. The DNCG has no fundamental reason to do anything, and in Bordeaux, they are once again chasing promotion to Ligue 1. However, they end up finishing 12th.

Lopez is raging, swearing and kicking, and no wonder, with the millions of euros he has put into the club not even partially returning. He's in the red, and he's tired of it. However, the businessman's often abrupt nature and shortcuts have also meant that everyone at the club has been under constant pressure.

The CEO Thomas Jacquemier in particular was heavily criticised for every failure and the two were in constant conflict. It is perhaps fortunate that they spoke to each other over the phone in the vast majority of cases, as Lopez was not often in Bordeaux. He ran the whole thing remotely.

It was, in fact, a vicious circle of relationships in Bordeaux. In one corner, an angry owner pumping money into a black hole, and in the other, a CEO who couldn't get enough of his job but instead of trying to calm the situation, according to many indications, escalated it. He and others involved in the running of the club made the wrong choices in terms of staffing and overall use of funds. 

When the atmosphere within the club is miserable at the top, it logically trickles down to the coaches and the players. However, few people probably imagined just how bad things were going to get.

Lopez figured it couldn't go on like this. He proved to be very impatient and stubborn, thinking only about his business, and putting it before everything else. Everyone who worked at the club is also to blame, giving the impression that they blindly thought the boss was just angry, that everything would soon be sorted out, and that things would click again.

The result was cruel for everyone - players, coaches, officials, fans and regional political leaders. No new investor was found, and the guillotine of the DNCG fell.

Toxicity and the road to ruin

It's the end of April 2024. The final passages of the league season are approaching and Bordeaux seem to be in the same stalemate as in January, when the project put forward by the DNCG to attract a new minority investor collapsed.

Ever since last September, someone like that had been sought, but it was evident that the problems at the club were of no small nature, and the negotiations ended without much progress.

According to the documents presented, the four entities were Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, Central Lane Partners, Liberty Global Partners and Dynasty Equity Partners. All of the companies had access to club data, but discussions did not lead to any specific offer. In essence, Lopez only privately established that a deal would not be possible under any conditions if the club did not stay in Ligue 2. That's the main focal point.

Lopez told everyone that he was too busy with all these talks and couldn't be present in Bordeaux, but when he wanted to, he found the time. At the end of March, for example, it emerged that he had called the CEO Thomas Jacquemier on his mobile phone at half-time of the game against Paris FC and told him, in short: "You can find a new club if you don't win. I have made a lot of effort for you, but you don't see the problems at all."

It was not unusual for Lopez to treat his subordinates in this way. After the end of last season, he did not go directly to Bordeaux to talk face-to-face with the main officials. They sat around the table and evaluated, and it was a heated argument that was reportedly not without derogatory words.

Only through his intermediary, the sporting director Admar Lopes, did Lopez say he would "no longer reach deep into his pockets to experience a season like this" and that many changes would be made. When die-hard fans heard this, they put up a banner saying "You are no messiah if you lead the club to disaster every season."

Time runs out

Weeks passed and on June 27th, the main hearing with the DNCG took place.

It was rumoured that the international bank with which Lopez was negotiating had asked public figures in Bordeaux to act as guarantors for him. Some, such as Mayor Pierre Hurmic, Senator Nathalie Delattre and another prominent political figure, Bertrand Dubois, would accept. But nothing moved forward. 

Bordeaux did still have nine more days, as the proceedings were temporarily suspended. Lopez, who had never wanted to hear about selling the club, had a knife to his throat, and eventually, very reluctantly, he entered into talks with Fenway Sports Group, which incidentally owns English giant Liverpool, about handing over a majority stake. These negotiations also collapsed though, leading to the club's virtual relegation to the Championnat National, the third-highest division.

On July 16th, a video conference was held between Lopez, Jacquemier and the shareholders of FSG, and the meeting quickly took a bad turn, as it came to light that Bordeaux owed around €10 million to former coach Vladimir Petkovic and €20 million in rent to the stadium. The question of who would pay the debts came to the table and tensions crystallised around the stadium. The Americans were told to negotiate with City Hall to reduce the annual fee of about four million euros and renegotiate the set contract. This is valid until 2045, with the owner then obliged to take over the burden even if the club ceases to exist.

Bordeaux officials pushed too far, and the "offensive" negotiations did not sit well with FSG. John William Henry, the founder of the company, did not understand why he, of all people, should seek a solution to deal with the situation surrounding the ground and decided to end discussions. A delegation from Fenway was going to sign the necessary documents right in Bordeaux, but they travelled to no avail. There were only online discussions with Mayor Hurmic and another political representative, Christine Bost, at which it was explained why the two sides had not reached an agreement.

The day after, Jacquemier came before his staff and told them that negotiations had failed. Lopez, by the way, was to confide to those close to him that the difference between the FSG's overall financial ideas and the real project was 80 million euros, also because France was suffering in the economic context due to a significant reduction in cash flows for television rights.

Lopez: 'I still want the club but I'm not going to overpay'

The entire club has watched the course of events of the last few days with great horror. Jacquemier called captain Yoann Barbet and was pessimistic, not believing that Lopez would break the piggy bank again and finance everything as before. The content of this conversation reached the players, who still didn't want to believe it. "I hope Lopez will put money into saving us all," one of them was said to have said.

In a subsequent interview with French agency AFP, Lopez did not directly mention that he would again financially support Bordeaux at the level he had in previous seasons. The chance of such a scenario was put to rest, and there were effectively only three possible ones on the table: the highly unlikely arrival of another investor who would have to fall from the sky, a drop into the lower tier, or even the club's demise.

Lopez defended himself, talking about operating costs and the unfavourable economic situation. He couldn't quite admit fault.

In his defence, and we can only speculate if it was to avoid leaving the scene like the biggest thug ever, he did return to the negotiating table with Fenway Sports Group again 24 hours before the crucial meeting with the DNCG. At least that's what the press release said. He was even willing to agree to pursue any debts through the courts to buy time. He also had an agreement with City Hall to forgive some of the debts, and new talks about rent were in play.

But all this was a wasted effort, as the press release simply had no legal value. There was no one to wave papers with specific numbers and signatures at the DNCG. The demise was confirmed.

Lopez told his friends that he had done everything he could to save the famous club and make a deal with Fenway. As far as debts were concerned, everything was on track, especially with Petkovic finding common ground, which was key.

There was talk behind the scenes that Lopez would keep the club anyway and would reject any future offers to sell. The only exception he would make would be if someone was interested as a minority shareholder; he would not resist the entry of another investor.

In any case, Bordeaux will have to get used to managing a much smaller fortune for years to come. On Thursday, July 25th, the club issued a statement announcing that it was shedding its status as a professional entity. Player contracts have been terminated and the training centre will close.

'There is no shame in falling down, just in staying down for a long time,' goes a French proverb. Only time will tell how quickly, and if at all, Les Girondins will get off the ground in the coming years.