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Fallen French giants Bordeaux edge closer to extinction

Bordeaux fans wave the club’s flags during a protest ahead of a hearing at the Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion in July
Bordeaux fans wave the club’s flags during a protest ahead of a hearing at the Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion in JulyPhoto by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP

Bordeaux, once one of France's leading football clubs and the team where the country's new head coach Zinedine Zidane made his name, lurched further into trouble on Friday.

After years of crippling financial problems, the spectre of judicial liquidation looms over the Girondins after the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) rejected their latest appeal against their exclusion from the national leagues.

The measure, notified to the club on Friday, according to its vice-president Arnaud De Carli, means the six-time French champions are barred from playing in the fourth tier next season, as they had hoped.

Instead, they have been relegated to the sixth tier.

Bordeaux have 15 days to file an appeal, but the fourth-tier season starts on August 22nd.

They were sanctioned for failing to provide roughly 10 million euros ($11.6 million) for the 2025/2026 financial year to finance the 2026/2027 season and meet debt payments.

Zidane played for Bordeaux between 1992 and 1996.

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