Calais Racing Union FC - Fin du reve......

[moley]

Thanks for the updates

Please, you and your mates keep going, as I said before, Calais is too big to be without football, Calais FC needs you!!!!!

[Deleted]

The Junior teams (up to U15's) are now up and running. However, although playing under the CFHdF banner, they are using the CRUFC kit, and the club has adopted Cruffy as its badge - so we have CFHdF playing as CRUFC...

Unfortunately, the U19's situation has yet to be resolved - in consequence, the Ligue has imposed a 'forfait-general' on their fixtures, so they'll be in District 2 next season (having been relegated on zero points as no games played).

Surprisingly, there has has been no word whatsoever with regard to reviving the First Team. We await developments.

[kc7]

Dear CA,

I am truly sorry to hear about CRUFC and as others have said, let's hope you find a way back in another guise. We have really fond memories of watching the team over the 2013/14 season including games against Bastia and Amiens, and you may remember our epic hunt to track down a couple of CRUFC scarfs for my two daughters (which we eventually did with your guidance).

All the best and fingers crossed,
Keith

[Deleted]

An interesting development from AS Marck's AGM, last Friday. With the demise of CRUFC, Marck are now the senior club in the Greater Calais area. Their President, Eric Vercoutre, is well regarded as the opposite of all that happened at CRUFC. He has turned the club around so that they are now trading at a small profit. He was also able to announce that the club had cleared its debt. All good for Marck. However things got really interesting when he began to outline his view of football in Greater Calais. To the consternation of many present, he made clear that he could see no way that Marck could ever be developed to play in more senior Ligues, as the club had neither the resources nor the talent - the club could never generate enough revenue to support significant growth. At last - someone prepared to say publicly what many have known in private; if only our Board could have recognised the same for CRUFC. He went on to state that the only way higher Ligue football could be brought about, in Calais, would be for all of the local clubs, including his own,  to merge to form one single 'super-club' for the Greater Calais area. That might stand a chance of generating enough revenue and attracting investment.Without such an approach, he stated that Marck could at any point in the future become the next CRUFC, and go under.

Vercoutre's comments will undoubtedly cause much debate, especially given his track record in running a club in a financially sane way. If he can't see a way out, then it's difficult to see what anyone else could do differently. It also calls into question the formation of a first-team for CFHdF - if we accept Vercoutre's analysis then another lower Ligue level club is about the last thing we need, especially if it is to be condemned to eternal mediocrity or repeating the financial recklessness of CRUFC in order to escape such a fate.

(Note - 'Greater Calais' means that any merger would take in Marck, Coulogne, Coquelles, Guines, Audruicq, Bleriot-Plage and Calais Pascal)

[Deleted]

Would fans be likely to band together in such a way. Could your fans not get behind Marck, as it is a Calais club or would that be your equivalent to us being expected to get behind Gillingham?

[Deleted]

A belated 'Bonne Annee', everyone.

Hello NWS - no chance whatsoever of such a merger coming about. In the case of Marck and Calais it is a 'Gillingham' scenario - with the other teams, some of which represent what are little more than large villages, there is the whole 'civic pride' issue.

Some developments with CFHdF - photos attached of the new club badge and home shirt (you may notice some similarity to a former Calais club [ahem!...]) Apologies for the somewhat abstract angle of the shirt picture, but it's the only one available...

Still no word on the U19's, but all teams up to U16 are now up and running.

[Deleted]

There has been something of a flurry of activity around last years events, with a few insights and surprises...

Last weekend saw a lengthy interview with DB, in the local press.Much of it was pretty general, but it did contain one interesting claim - that the players who would have signed, had we been relegated to R1 and not R4 (more on this shortly), were willing to sign with CRU or the new project (my italics). We are assuming that this means RFC - if so, then discussions between all sides were much more advanced than was thought. The interview contained what, for many, was an unwelcome surprise - perhaps the terse and unemotional headline ('Bouteille turns the page') was an indicator of what was to come. Given that Djezon spent 12 years with the club, both as player and manager, and was well liked and respected by the Club, players and supporters, it was disappointing that he claims to have no affinity whatsoever for Calais, whilst describing his time with Lille (as a player) in glowing terms.

And then - just as we thought CRU was history, Monday saw the start of legal action, by the SASP, against the Ligue Nord Pas de Calais. They are claiming a number of issues, but the primary case is for 200,000 euros damages for what the SASP claims was constructive liquidation by the Ligue.To explain....One of the main reasons given, by the Ligue, for pressing for liquidaton was that CRU did not have any licenced players signed up (in essence, no first-team) to play in R1. Any footballer needs to have their licence to play for a professional / semi-professional club - without it they cannot ply their trade in France. However, FFF regulations state that licenced players cannot play at any level below R1 (the old DH) - below that, they are classed as local amateurs, and lose their licence.The SASP claim that this made the Ligue's position self-fulfilling - by making the possible outcomes playing in R1 or R4 no licenced player could risk signing up to CRU in case we were placed in R4, at which point they would lose their licence and be unable to sign for any other professional club. Had the options been R1 or liquidation then the players could have signed - liquidation as a R1 club would have left them free to join other clubs. It is also claimed that the Ligue acted unjustly in that the Club appealed the decision, of relegation to R4, on 17th July - however, the Ligue did not consider the appeal until 31st August.This was three days after the new R1 season had begun, and so there was no way CRU could have joined R1, even if the appeal had been successful (under the football regulations a fixture default means immediate suspension fron the Ligue). With no games to play, the Club would have folded - so, again, constructive liquidation. There is also something of a 'getting-back' at the Ligue with a call for a judicial review of Article 234 of the Regulations - this regulation allows an amateur Ligue to have full jurisdiction over any professional club which enters its structures - the SASP are claiming that an amateur ligue cannot properly deal with professional clubs and players. The case will run and run - unsurprisingly, the Ligue aren't taking it lying down. 'War is declared' was the Ligue President's response...

All of the above goes some way to explaining why no new senior team has been founded, and why RCF was really a non-starter. Had a new club been established with the same players, ground, officials - essentially, everything but the debt and creditors - then it is likely the authorities would have regarded the liquidation as a contrived insolvency, which is unlawful.

On a lighter note...Aldo (former stalwart of the Kop) is reported to have said that if Dun -ahem, ahem - they get promoted, and play at the Epopee, he'll go along and watch.They say losing your Club makes you do funny things.....

[Deleted]

Hi again. I was outside your (old) ground just before Christmas. We went to Lille and Arras Christmas markets. It is a neat little ground so a real shame over what is happening. It's always a sad moment when money arguments take over and all you want to do is trot along and watch some local football.

[Deleted]

Hello NWS - yes, we all have great fondness for the Denis. DB's interview contained an interesting anecdote, which speaks volumes about the Council's attitude towards the Club. During our final season, the Council (as owners of the Epopee) agreed that we could play some early round Coupe games (against local amateur teams) at the Denis, to try and rekindle some of the atmosphere around the Club. DB recalls how he observed how ramshackle the Denis was looking - no lights in the floodlight towers, run-down dressing rooms, a delapidated meeting room, and so on. However, since the demise of CRU, the Denis has been renovated and refurbished....Unless, of course, they've finally listened to the supporters, and will base any future CFHdF first-team there.

Incidentally, the CFHdF name is coming in for complete derision - the best comment I've heard is that it sounds just like the name a committee of Council officials would come up with (which, in essence, it is...).

[Deleted]

A little flurry of activity this week. Tuesday saw a media briefing, led by Eric Vercoutre (Marck's President) about plans for his proposed new 'super-club' for the Calaisis.There wasn't actually too much detail - the main interest is that it looks like some RFC backers may be getting onboard .As ever, we await developments. It was enough, however, to spook the Mairie, who held her own media briefing on Thursday, warning all of those involved to 'consider their actions carefully...'. She's obviously concerned about the effect any new club would have on CFHdF which is, essentially, her project for football in Calais.

Those involved with football v the Mairie.Yes - it's obviously a new start to football in Calais.....

[Deleted]

Major news, this week, with the abandonment of Vercoutre's plan for the 'Grand Club'. The public stance is that the investors (who remain anonymous, although there are plenty of rumours doing the rounds in Calais...) have withdrawn their backing following the Mairie's statement - I'm sure OA (through his involvement with Brive) could explain the importance of having good relations with the local authorities.The general feeling amongst most, however, is that the investors took a long, hard look at the figures and decided that they just wouldn't add-up - Vercoutre's proposal had hardly caught the public imagination, even though he was enthused.

The announcement has provided more detail about the Mairie's postion - basically, the Council wants lots more discussion and preparation before they would be willing to back a new senior club - the Mairie has proposed Season 2019 - 2020 for launch, if a new club can actually be founded. Vercoutre's investors have said they're not interested (it has emerged that the FFF would have granted the new club a Statute for next season, had proposals been submitted by May). Much to the Mairie's chagrin, it has also emerged that the Women's club had agreed to re-merge with the new club, had it gone ahead - women's football is one of the Mairie's pet projects; she often cites the success of the Women's club as evidence of the correctness of the Council's position.

So the earliest we're going to see senior football in Calais again is September 2019....All sides can try to dress this up as much as they like - the fact remains that the investors have walked away, so if Vercoutre couldn't pull it off, it's difficult to see who could.Sad to say, Calais just isn't a football town - even at our (year) 2000 peak the gate for home league games was only around 3000. Once things fell away - well, I was there when there were 98 of us for FC Feignies...

I'm not sure if a French local authority can actually own a football club, but that shall be the effective reality for any new club.

[Deleted]

News this week that Djezon B. is returning to management as head coach with US Gravelines, our former rivals from along the coast. After a few seasons of decline, USG have enjoyed a good season, finishing as Regionale 2 champions. However, he is under no illusions about the task in hand, recognising that the current squad will struggle to stay up in Regionale 1, hence his desire for new recruitment. Ironically, the club have enjoyed such a good season under the management of former Calais legend Jerome Dutitre, who was DB's assistant at Calais during Season 2016 - 17; however, he isn't a full-time manager and his 'day-job' has taken him away from Gravelines.

[Deleted]

It's been an interesting week for USL Dun - ahem,ahem - them...Firstly, the local Council have had to (effectively) bail-out USLD to the tune of 400,000 Euros, to keep the DNCG happy. Secondly (and here's the Calais connection) they shall play their first three 'home' games, of next season, at the Epopee. This is because constuction and maintenance work, at the Stade Tribut, will not be completed in time.There has been some surprise at the Mairie's decision to allow them to use the Epopee for free - given the failure. of the Epopee, to ever generate the income that was expected from it (at the time of its construction) it already looks like a 'white elephant', generally standing empty.It's only used by the Women's Team - although, even then, only because the Mairie made playing there a condition of Council support for women's football.Call me cynical, but I wonder if we would have been given use of the Tribut for free - USLD used to even severely restrict the number of tickets we could have for games there...

[Deleted]

Dun -ahem -they played their first 'home' game at the Epopee, last weekend - they went down 2-1 to an 87th minute winner, against Le Mans (such delight....).What was most noticiable was the vast swaithes of empty seats at the Epopee - so much for the idea that hoards of their supporters would make their way to Calais. It's like the Stones ground-sharing with Gillingham.

It's all gone very quiet with regard to a new Calais club - we assume the 'discussions' the Mairie wanted are going on behind closed doors...

[Deleted]

And then...there was football!!!  A surprise announcement, last week, that a new Senior team has been founded. This has been achieved by CFCHdF taking over Offekerque FC and relocating it to Calais, thereby also taking OFC's place in Regionale 3 for this season. The new manager, Manu Joly, has also recruited other players from several R3 and R4 clubs.Most significantly, the new club will be based at the Stade Denis! (fanfare sounds, thousands cheer, day of national rejoicing...).I'm sure more detail shall emerge, over the coming weeks, which I'll let you know about.We look forward to the new R3 Ligue campaign.

The first competitive game for Calais FC (as they shall, thankfully, be known) was in the first round of the Coupe de France, on Sunday.We have got off to a winning start - 2-1 against Rixent USO, from R2, so something of an 'upset' victory.

It's taken fifteen months, but I can't tell you how good it is to be able to say, once again, 'I'm a Calais supporter...'. ALLEZ CALAIS!!!