January 18 – In a case dating back to the 2015-2016 season, the French Football Federation (FFF) has been ordered to pay Ligue 1 Reims €4.78 million by a local court over a relegation debacle that occurred in 2015-16.
Although Reims ended that season in the automatic relegation places, they claimed SC Bastia, who finished 10th, should have gone down instead because of the Corsican club’s dire financial situation.
Whether or not the local ruling is binding remains to be seen but in its judgement the court said that the FFF should have taken into account “financial and accounting documents produced by SC Bastia.”
It further points out that Bastia were subsequently demoted to the third tier of French football in 2017 when the club was understood to owe various enterprises around €15 million.
In January 2019, Reims sued the FFF for €21 million in damages and while the Châlons-en-Champagne court partially validated its arguments, the judgment sees them earn less than 25% of what they initially demanded.
Nevertheless Reims President Caillot was upbeat. “The amount is considerable… the tribunal viewed us to be in the right,” he said. “There is now the possibility that the FFF appeals, and we will see what they do, but we are satisfied.”
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