By Mark Baber
July 2 – With France’s Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG) having declared that Corsican club Sporting Club de Bastia should be relegated to League 2 on financial grounds, irrespective of having finished 12th in the Ligue 1 last season, the club today reacted angrily to reports the sale of Ryad Boudebouz would be insufficient to see the decision reversed.
The DNCG, the organisation responsible for monitoring and overseeing the accounts of professional clubs in France has decided to bar Bastia from Ligue 1 due to a € 1.3 million hole in the club’s finances. However, the club management has insisted the pending sale of Boudebouz to Montpellier for € 1.7 million will put the club back on an even keel.
Club owner, Pierre-Marie Geronimi has told supporters that Bastia “will be playing in Ligue 1 next season.”
However, French media have published reports from unnamed sources claiming debts of up to €10 million at the club, leading Bastia to issue a statement on its web site this morning, accusing the media of publishing details of “alleged debts” based on anonymous sources “which do not take into account the accounting reality of SCB.”
According to the statement, Sporting wished to put an end to “fanciful rumors … which would tend to suggest that the final transfer of Ryad Boudebouz in Montpellier, would not be the only obstacle to keeping the club in Ligue 1.”
The club is awaiting the results of a meeting on June 30 at which the club appealed the initial ruling and has said it will provide any documentation required by the authorities but no additional information to the media in the meantime.
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