Futbolo forumas

The former National league will become professional and will be broadcast in full on Ligue 1 +, the platform that carries all Ligue 1 matches.

The best match of the matchday will be broadcast on Thursdays at 8:45 PM, and there will be a multipanel with eight simultaneous matches on Saturdays at 3:00 PM.

The "Football Video Support" is introduced, a low-cost VAR in which each coach will have two opportunities to request that the referee go to the monitor to review a controversial play.

There will be a budget of 12.5M€ to be distributed among all the teams, higher than the 5.8M€ of this season in National.

A Ligue 3 team will be able to earn a maximum of 450,000€, while this season the cap was at 180,000€.

On 15 July, the DNCG’s appeal commission confirmed Bordeaux’s exclusion from all French national competitions for the 2026–27 season. This means the first team cannot compete in any of the national divisions (1 to 5 tier). The official FFF decision specifically confirms the exclusion after Bordeaux’s appeal.

In practice:

- Bordeaux can, at best, be placed in Régional 1, the sixth tier.
- Their precise level must still be decided by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional league.
- The club is expected to seek conciliation through the CNOSF, but this is not a normal sporting appeal and does not guarantee that the decision will be overturned.
- A commercial-court hearing is expected shortly, with judicial liquidation of the professional company now a realistic possibility.

The DNCG reportedly required approximately €9–10 million to cover the end of the 2025–26 financial year and finance the following season. Owner Gérard Lopez did not provide it. British investment fund Sparta Capital had been negotiating a takeover since April. However, it withdrew immediately before the appeal hearing after failing to secure the necessary €10 million. Gérard Lopez is reportedly no longer willing to put additional money into the club. That left Bordeaux attending the DNCG appeal without the required guarantees.

Sparta became the latest failed rescue attempt after:

- Fenway Sports Group withdrew from takeover negotiations in 2024.
- Oliver Kahn’s investor group withdrew in 2025.
- Sparta Capital withdrew in July 2026.

The sporting side had begun to stabilise.

- 2024–25 National 2 – fourth tier 4th
- 2025–26 National 2 – fourth tier 2nd, three points short of promotion

In 2025–26, Bordeaux finished with 62 points from 30 matches, three behind promoted La Roche-sur-Yon. Bruno Irles was dismissed in March while promotion was still possible. Former Bordeaux captain Rio Mavuba took charge for the closing weeks. Despite missing promotion, Mavuba was given the job for 2026–27 on 8 July—only one week before the DNCG confirmed the club’s exclusion. Therefore, the sporting rebuild was producing some progress, but the team was always operating beneath an unresolved financial crisis.

How Bordeaux reached this point

The decisive collapse happened in 2024:

- Bordeaux had already accumulated enormous debt after relegation from Ligue 1 in 2022.
- The attempt to sell the club to Fenway Sports Group failed.
- The DNCG relegated Bordeaux administratively from Ligue 2 in 2024.
- The club entered judicial restructuring and surrendered the professional status it had held since 1937.
- Professional player contracts were terminated and the official academy was closed.
- Bordeaux were eventually placed in National 2, two divisions below Ligue 2.

There appeared to be a breakthrough in June 2025. A commercial court approved a continuation plan reducing the debt scheduled for repayment from around €94 million to €26 million, spread over ten years. Lopez injected €9 million to cover the 2025–26 budget and the first repayments. Bordeaux avoided liquidation and remained in National 2.

Only one year later, the club has again failed to fund the next season. This suggests that the continuation plan solved the immediate legal problem but did not create a sustainable operating model.

What liquidation would mean

It is important to distinguish between the professional operating company and the wider club association. If the commercial court liquidates the present company:

- The current professional structure would effectively disappear.
- The historic Girondins association could potentially continue the football activity.
- However, the association is connected to the club’s FFF affiliation number and could inherit sporting or financial complications.
- L’Équipe reports approximately €4.5 million in foreign-transfer obligations and another €500,000 in training compensation linked to the affiliation.

Therefore, the Girondins name and youth/community organisation might survive, but that would not guarantee the survival of the current club structure, squad, stadium arrangement or league position.