The Nancy Administrative Court of Appeal on Tuesday annulled the order of the French Football Federation (FFF) to pay 4.78 million euros to the Stade de Reims, in compensation for damage suffered at the end of the season 2015-2016.
The club believed that SC Bastia, which finished 10th in Ligue 1, should have been relegated to L2 instead of Rémois, who finished 18th, due to its extremely degraded financial situation.
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In its initial request, Stade de Reims had appealed to the Châlons?en?Champagne administrative court against the FFF and the Professional Football League (LFP), requesting more than 21 million euros, estimating that the deficiencies in the control of SC Bastia had caused its relegation.
The court found, in January 2021, “the existence of a fault committed in the control of the financial situation of SC Bastia at the end of the 2015/2016 season, which should have led to the demotion of this club and made it possible to “this allows the Reims team to remain in Ligue 1”, recalls the Nancy administrative court of appeal in a press release.
The FFF appealed its conviction and Stade de Reims also appealed to contest the rejection of part of its financial claims.
The court considered that, by taking into account only the elements available to the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG), the relegation of SC Bastia “was not clearly necessary”, which does not give right to compensation for the Stade de Reims.
Still according to the appeal court, “if the situation of SC Bastia was delicate, with regard to its budget, its debt and the level of its equity, certain elements suggested an improvement”.
Thus, financial relegation to L2 did not “obviously constitute the measure best suited to remedy, with the aim of guaranteeing the continuity and fairness of competitions, the degraded financial situation of this club”, ruled the court, considering that the DNCG did not commit any fault.
“The responsibility of the FFF and, in any event, of the LFP, was not engaged,” adds the court.
The Stade de Reims will therefore have to reimburse the FFF the sums paid, specifies the court of appeal.
