Six-time French champions Bordeaux, who were sanctioned in the summer for financial irregularities, will play the current season in the sixth tier of French football, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine league confirmed on Thursday. Once one of France’s leading football clubs and the team where the country’s new head coach Zinedine Zidane made his name, Bordeaux was sold last month for a symbolic one euro to US-based investment group Park Bench who agreed to take on the remaining debt. Bordeaux were sanctioned for failing to provide the roughly 10 million euros ($11.6 million) needed for the 2025-2026 financial year as well as 2026-2027 and meet debt payments.
Once one of France’s leading football clubs and the team where the country’s new head coach Zinedine Zidane made his name, Bordeaux was sold last month for a symbolic one euro to US-based investment group Park Bench who agreed to take on the remaining debt.
The team is largely amateur although they are permitted five players on professional contracts, one of which will go to former Ligue 1 striker Baptiste Guillaume. The club has produced many big names of French football including academy products Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry who both played alongside Zidane in the 1998 World Cup-winning team.
Two days after appearing before the oversight commission of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine league, which approved their recovery budget and issued “a positive opinion on their possible participation in Regional 1,” the club was unanimously approved to play in the top tier. “Rebuilding can now begin,” said Dominique Delport, the new president chosen by Park Bench, speaking to AFP.
