Calais: from cup final to oblivion
Calais RUFC are unable to maintain their debts and the club is on the verge of folding
The club reached the French cup final in 2000 despite playing in the fourth tier of French football
The good times left Calais a while ago. In recent times the town has been in the news mainly due to the dramatic images of refugees on its beaches and this week the foretold death of its football club, Calais RUFC, was finally announced. On 7 May 2000, the club played in the French cup final as the culmination as the biggest adventure in the history of French football.
Calais, then in the fourth tier, were the most surprising of finalists and only lost the final 2-1 – and some still claim they deserved to win it – against Nantes, who recovered from 1-0 to win 2-thanks to a late, debatable penalty.
The cup run made the team, then managed by Spaniard Ladislas Lozano, a phenomenon across northern France and 25,000 people travelled to the Stade du France to support the team – from a population of 80,000.
However, those glorious days seem like a different world for the club now. In 2006, then playing in the third tier, the club reached the quarter finals before being knocked out by Nantes, again but in recent years poor financial management and poor results on the pitch has brought the club to its knees.
“We cannot continue to support a club whose difficulties are daily news. Unfortunately we have to put an end to this adventure because we’ve already gone too far,” the major of Calais, Natacha Bouchert, explained on Wednesday as she announced the liquidation of the club, whose debts are “impossible to maintain”.
Calais RUFC were due to play this season in the Régionale 4, in the ninth tier of French football, but will probably disappear immediately, liquidating all its assets to give rise to a new club called Calais Football Club Hauts-de-France that will replace Calais RUFC and try to somehow recreate the glory of that cup run.
