The administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne) has ruled: Reims should not have been relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of the 2015-2016 season.
The Champagne club, which finished the season in 18th place, should have stayed in the top flight and seen Bastia, then in the throes of enormous financial difficulties, go down one step.
It was the Federation that forced us to go through this procedure.
Jean-Pierre Caillot, president of Reims
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But the National Direction of Management Control, an independent commission which sits in the French Football Federation, had decided otherwise.
This is why the “3F” was ordered to pay Reims (L1) the sum of 4.78 million euros in compensation for the damage suffered.
“It was the Federation that forced us to go through this procedure. We had to be patient but since the beginning of this case, I considered that the Stade de Reims was in its right. We sent a message. The court judged that a certain number of elements made it possible to reduce the damage which we estimate to have undergone (21.27 MEUR) but he recognized that we were right ”, welcomed the Reims President Jean-Pierre Caillot.
Back to the facts
At the beginning of 2016, the National Management Control Department (DNCG) had pronounced a downgrading measure as a precaution against the Corsican club but the financial policeman of French football had reversed this decision by imposing a simple controlled recruitment measure.
The DNCG considered that the financial and accounting supporting documents produced by SC Bastia were satisfactory.
However, the court of Châlons-en-Champagne ruled that these documents in fact revealed a compromised financial situation which led to the opening of judicial liquidation proceedings on September 5, 2017 against the SCB, finally relegated to Nationale 3 (5th division).
Maintaining L1 Bastia, an “unsuitable” measure
The court thus considered that the DNCG had taken a measure manifestly unsuited to the situation of the club. The demotion measure that targeted Bastia should therefore have offered a draft in L1 at the Stade de Reims.
The court therefore ruled in favor of the Marne club, which was “entitled to be compensated for the damages resulting from his demotion to L2, which appear to be directly linked to the fault of the FFF.”
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