Qualified directly for the Champions League thanks to its 3rd place in the championship, Stade Brestois should play its matches in the most prestigious European cup at the Stade de Roudourou, in Guingamp, a solution which upsets supporters from both camps.
Francis Le Blé stadium too dilapidated for UEFA
“The European Cup is at Le Blé!!”, proclaimed, again on Sunday evening, a banner in the Finistériens’ park in Toulouse, on the evening of the historic qualification for the club. It reflects the dismay of the fiery public in Finistère, forced into exile because its century-old enclosure is far too dilapidated for UEFA’s liking. The latter, who came to visit at the end of April, was ready to allow only 5,000 spectators per match, grouped on a stand, the other three resting on prohibited tubular structures.
Other problems arose, such as the location of the security PC, “without forgetting the OB vans, the spaces for the press, the security of the players in their parking lot… There are too many negative elements against us”, had President Denis Le Saint had to admit recently in L’Equipe. The club did unveil a project for a new 15,000-seat stadium in 2018, with the aim of completing it in 2022, but the first sods are only planned, for the moment, in 2025 for implementation. service in summer 2027.
Brest has therefore resigned itself to surveying the two neighboring clubs with stadiums that meet standards: Rennes and Guingamp. Roazhon Park, the scene of continental games for the last six years, was all the more tempting as the Rouge et Noir pitifully missed out on European qualification this season.
Roudourou closer and cheaper
Unfortunately, this enclosure which can accommodate nearly 30,000 spectators suffers from two disadvantages: high organizational costs and above all a distance representing almost 2h30 of road. “And for a midweek match, that counts,” noted Denis Le Saint. With its 18,000 seats, Roudourou promises less fantastic revenue, but it is twice as close to Brest and Guingamp has logically become the solution favored by Stade Brestois.
“A priori”, an agreement should be found quickly to formalize this solution, revealed on the night of Sunday to Monday the mayor of Brest, François Cuillandre (PS). His Guingamp counterpart, Philippe Le Goff (PS), who is also president of the Joint Syndicate for the Development of the Roudourou Stadium (SMASR), had offered his services in the name of “Breton solidarity”.
“We received the European Cup 10 years ago and since then, we have improved the stadium. We also received matches from the French team (in 2018, 2020 and 2021). If there is anything something to review, it remains on the margins”, he pleaded in Le Télégramme. “The adjustments to be made in relation to what UEFA requests, there is no subject, will naturally be our responsibility,” Denis Le Saint also assured from the outset.
“Brest not welcome”
But this great surge of regional solidarity did not reach the stands of Guingamp. “Brest not welcome”, we could read in the kop of the Costarmoricans on Friday, during the match against Laval. The antagonism between Brestois and Guingampais is one of the strongest in Breton football. It finds its roots in particular in the liquidation of the Brest club in December 1991, behind which local supporters saw, at least in part, the hand of Noël Le Graët, elected head of the National Football League, ancestor of the LFP, two months earlier, after having been president of En Avant Guingamp for 19 years.
“For us, it is inconceivable that they could come,” declared Lucas Le Bour, president of Kop Rouge 93, the main group of Guingamp supporters, to “A la Guingampaise”, a media specialized on the Costa Rican team.
“Last year, when in a friendly match, they came to the visitor’s yard, they broke a lot of things, so we really fear what will happen in town in the afternoon with our members, the average Guingamp supporters “It worries us a lot,” he added. Not sure that they will be heard: Brest must communicate its response to UEFA in two days.