Disappointment. Bitterness. Everything is still intact here. Football has certainly resumed its rights. But in Amiens the anger has not completely subsided. While the city’s club, Amiens Sporting Club (ASC), will face Paris FC, co-leader of Ligue 2, on Saturday September 12 at home, after the two matches played since the resumption of the championship on August 22, the descent of Ligue 1 in the offseason is still not digested.
“We murdered the Amiens SC”, insists Boris. Founder of a collective of supporters, “Braquage à l’Amiénoise”, which has about 10,000 members on Facebook, the young man was the initiator of a petition against the relegation of the club to L2, after the League of professional football (LFP) had decided in April to prematurely end the 2019-2020 season due to the health crisis due to Covid-19,
Ranked second to last at the time of this pre-term stoppage of the championship, Amiens had to draw a line over three years among the elite, by virtue of a calculation taking into account the number of points scored divided by the number of games played. The president of the club, Bernard Joannin, supported by the town hall and the community of agglomeration of Amiens, may well oppose this decision, going so far as to seize the Council of State, he did not obtain a gain of cause.
Gigantic economic losses
For many Amiens, this decision is still seen as a “Injustice”. “The ASC is 110 years old, for a small club like ours, Ligue 1 was a dream, and being relegated without sporting reasons is a prejudice for the whole city”, adds Boris. If he re-subscribed on the eve of the resumption of Ligue 2, on August 22, the supporter will attend the matches with a “Spirit of revenge”.
According to Bernard Joannin, the economic losses for the club would approach 35 million euros. They could be explained by the loss of revenue in ticketing due to the limit of 5,000 spectators in the stadiums imposed by the health situation, but especially by the fall in revenues linked to television rights, caused by relegation to Ligue 2.
“It was the year when you shouldn’t go down”, underlines Luc Arrondel, economist and football specialist. Elite clubs (Ligue 1 and Ligue 2) will certainly share a windfall that has increased by 60% this season, with the arrival of the Spanish group Mediapro in French football, but this increase will primarily benefit the Ligue 1 teams. .
Amiens SC, which employs around 80 people, has undertaken to reduce its workforce. The team is in reconstruction since the departure of several players. Result: the group, young and inexperienced, lost all its pre-season matches.
“Real impacts on the whole territory”
But the repercussions of this descent in Ligue 2 are also palpable at the level of the city itself. At each Ligue 1 match weekend, all the hotels recorded between 200 and 300 reservations, explains Fabrice Colomba, director of an establishment near the station and president of the Grand Amiens Hotel Club.
Between “The drop in flows at Albert-Picardie airport, fewer jobs at caterers and in bars, there will be real impacts throughout the territory because people do not come for a league 2 match”, says Fany Ruin, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Amiens.
But the consequences are above all in terms of “Notoriety because playing in Ligue 1 is an element of attractiveness”, advances Alain Gest, president of Amiens Métropole. In 2017, when Amiens SC moved up to Ligue 1, the metropolis had invested nearly 16 million euros for the renovation of the Licorne stadium.
“A good team promotes the influence of the city, as in Lens for example, which is especially known thanks to its club”, details Gérard Lombardi, in charge of marketing and development at CNER, the national federation of economic development agencies – which works at the service of local authorities.
“Playing in Ligue 1 gave the feeling of being part of the big leagues, it was an element of pride and confidence”, Brigitte Fouré, mayor of Amiens
Relegation is above all seen as yet another sledgehammer for a city that sometimes feels “Injured “. “There is an ambient mentality which means that the inhabitants have little confidence in their territory and are used to devaluing it. Playing in Ligue 1 gave the feeling of being part of the big leagues, it was an element of pride and confidence ”, analysis Brigitte Fouré, mayor of Amiens.
With its 135,000 inhabitants, the Picardy city, wedged between Paris and Lille, is trying as best it can to make itself known and to attract tourists and investors. Especially since 2015, date of the merger of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy regions and the loss of its status as regional capital, in favor of Lille.
The territory is looking for “New strategies of attractiveness”, like many former regional prefectures, specifies Gérard Lombardi, whose development agencies support these cities in their transformation. Amiens is banking on the arrival of the TGV, promised for 2025 by Emmanuel Macron, to appeal to Parisians “in need of nature”.
Despite one of the smallest budgets in Ligue 1 last season (around 37 million euros), the stir caused by the club’s relegation shows that in football “The emotional repercussions are often more important than the economic repercussions”, summarizes Luc Arrondel.
