It’s October 20th, 2008. Tours FC are set to play against RC Lens in Ligue 2: a daunting matchup on paper. Tours had been promoted from the Championnat National, the third tier of France, just one year earlier, while Lens had just been relegated from Ligue 1. Lens was a historic club and had won the league a decade earlier, while Tours’ greatest success was arguably appearing twice in the semi-finals of the Coupe de France.
Yet it was Tours FC who would take home all three points, beating Lens 3-1 thanks to a brace from 21-year-old French talent Olivier Giroud. In defense, another young French prospect helped secure the win — a 23-year-old by the name of Laurent Koscielny. Both players were destined for stardom, and would later link up at Arsenal and on Les Bleus, the French national team.
The victory was a massive result for Tours, taking them up to sixth in the table and giving them a realistic chance at promotion. Sixteen years later, one of these clubs would celebrate a season where they played in the Champions League, fresh off of finishing second in Ligue 1. The other would be playing in the Championnat National 3, the fifth tier of France, and facing liquidation.
Tours is a tranquil city in the Loire Valley in western France. It’s known for its Château, view of the Loire River, Grand Théâtre, and cobblestone streets. However, it’s not necessarily what you’d call a sports town. Their basketball team has won the French league on two occasions and the volleyball team on nine, but it has struggled in France’s two most popular sports: rugby and soccer.
While Tours FC was founded in 1951, which is proudly displayed on the club’s badge, the club’s history started in 1919 when Association Sportive des Docks du Centre was founded. The name changed again two years later, but it wasn’t until 1951 that the club took on its current identity — kind of. The club’s name became FC Tours, and wouldn’t change to the current Tours FC until 1993 after the club filed for bankruptcy and lost its professional status. But more on that later.
The club was promoted to Ligue 2 in 1974, and after four seasons in the second tier, they finally became professional in 1978. They reached Ligue 1 in 1980 for the first time and spent three seasons in the top flight until relegation. They did reach the Coupe de France semi-finals twice during that span, unfortunately losing on both attempts to eventual champions PSG — in 1982, they crashed out on penalties after scoring just one of their five attempts.
FC Tours earned promotion again in 1984, but were relegated once more the following season. This would be the last time the club would play in the top flight. In 1988, they suffered another relegation, sending them to the third tier of France. They earned promotion back to the second tier immediately, but in 1993, they were once again relegated to the Championnat National, the third tier.
Following relegation in 1993, their debts resulted in the club being stripped of their professional status and suffering a double relegation — rather than play in the third tier the following season, they would play in the fourth. To add insult to injury, they would lose one of their top prospects as another future Arsenal star would leave — Patrick Vieira. The Frenchman never made an appearance for the Tours first team despite coming through the academy, joining AS Cannes for free.
In late 1993, the club filed for bankruptcy and was close to liquidation, but they were able to raise enough funds and stay alive. They struggled in the years that followed but bounced back in 1996, finishing fifth and, in a clear show of their commitment to the future, they were named the best amateur club in France due to the results of their youth team. However, finances continued to be a problem and it would be eight years until they returned to the Championnat National.
In 2006, Tours FC finally returned to Ligue 2, thirteen years and one name change later. Unfortunately, it would be a short spell as they won just six games and were relegated back to the third tier, but this time they wouldn’t need another thirteen years as they were promoted immediately.
Over the next few years, Tours established themselves as a strong Ligue 2 side. From 2008 to 2017, Tours won at least ten games each season, coming close to promotion on a few occasions. The closest was that 2008/09 season with Giroud and Koscielny, as the club finished in sixth place — just five points away from promotion. Koscielny would leave for Lorient that summer.
While Tours didn’t earn promotion, they did help start the careers of several talented players during this time. Koscielny arrived from Guingamp in 2007 with just 32 Ligue 2 appearances to his name — he featured for the club a combined 67 times in Ligue 2 before joining a top-flight club. Same story with Giroud, who had one season of Ligue 2 experience when Tours bought him. Two years and one Ligue 2 Golden Boot later, Giroud was off to Montpellier. Or Mehdi Benatia, who made his professional debut while on loan from Marseille.
The club soon suffered a dramatic change in fortunes. In the 2016/17 season, they barely avoided relegation, finishing 16th, and the next season they would win just five games as Tours finished bottom of Ligue 1, fifteen points from safety. A big talent exodus followed, and the club would win just seven games as they suffered their second straight relegation in 2019.
Here’s where things get interesting.
Financial problems meant that instead of relegation to the Championnat National 2, they were sent to the Championnat National 3, the fifth tier of France — a notoriously difficult league to escape, given that only the winner of each division goes up. They were on course for promotion in 2020 when the season was stopped for COVID, and it was ruled that all promotions and relegations would take place as expected.
Since Tours was first in their division, that meant they would be promoted. Except the DNCG, the Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion, the organization that monitors the finances of all teams in France, stepped in and denied Tours their promotion, sending second-placed Bourges 18 up instead. Interestingly enough, Bourges 18 would merge with Bourges Foot a year later to form Bourges Foot 18, which would be bought by Sadio Mané in 2023.
The following year, the Championnat National 3 was suspended and then ultimately canceled as a result of the COVID situation in France, so no one was promoted. Tours had played just five matches, losing only one, so it’s hard to tell how the season would have gone, but no chance at promotion and fewer games meant that the club’s finances continued to struggle. Bankruptcy followed in 2021, and the club was once again forced to go down a division, this time to Régional 1, the sixth tier of French soccer.
Despite the departures over the years following various relegations, Régional 1 was still far below Tours’ level. One of their league rivals was Bourges Foot C — not the reserve team, but the third team of the Bourges side that was given promotion over Tours back in 2020. Tours won the league easily, losing just one match, and — this time — they were granted promotion back to Championnat National 3. Ironically, their new group had Bourges Foot B in it.
Tours would fall agonizingly short of promotion. They tied with first-placed Avoine Olympique Chinon Cinais on 59 points and even had a better goal differential (+38 vs +28). Unfortunately, the tie-breaker was not goal differential, but the head-to-head record, and Tours lost both matches against Avoine, meaning that Tours would stay in the Championnat National 3.
Which takes us to this season. The club had a decent but unremarkable season, finishing third but ten points off of first (forfeiting a match they were leading 2-1 didn’t help). However, in May, the club was given a deadline by the Commercial Court of Tours: improve your finances or face liquidation. One month later, president Jean-Marc Ettori had found a buyer, and, saying he had done all he could do, asked for an extension. The court gave the club one more week to finalize the sale.
The buyer would be Ivan Desmet, a Belgian investor and CEO of Rhodes Sports. All Tours FC had to do was prove that Desmet had the money, which, they claimed in a Facebook statement, they did, saying they “have received €83,000 from FIFA and €100,000 from the investor Mr. Desmet. The latter informed the court that he pledged to add an additional €200,000 if necessary to get out of the suspension of payments.” In other words, he would pay the club’s debt as well.
Remember when I said that things were getting interesting? Well, here’s where things get really, really interesting.
On July 25th, the new deadline, news broke that Tours FC would be liquidated. The club was shocked, with a statement saying they were “surprised to read the trade court ruling in the press while the notification was still not made.” Essentially, the press released news of the judgment that Tours themselves had not yet received, which, as the club pointed out in that statement, “raises ethical and confidentiality questions.”
Tours also took a jab at FIFA, saying that they were owed €350,000 from the federation—and the payment was eleven months late. If that is true, considering Gianni Infantino recently was given a massive pay rise to take his salary to nearly $5 million, that’s a pretty bad look for FIFA.
Their old pals the DNCG backed the decision, and additionally, it was announced that they would be demoted to Régional 1 because of finances once more. Not that it matters: liquidation means the club is, well, liquidated. As revealed by France Bleu, liquidation would mean the club would have to start again in D4. That would essentially mean the end of Tours FC as we know it: D4, or Départemental 4, is the last division of French soccer, the twelfth tier.
Tours plan to appeal, and they have already announced that they will continue to fight for the club’s survival. However, the damage has already been done. The majority of the club’s stars have already confirmed they are leaving, or have found new clubs already. Even if they play in Régional 1 next season, the squad will likely be too depleted to contend seriously for promotion. It’s looking like a sad end for one of the Loire’s most historic clubs.
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Image via toursfc.fr.