Let’s fight. For a central question. And an uncertain future. Can the Peugeot family save FC Sochaux-Montbéliard (FCSM) from bankruptcy? According to a local elected official, Romain Peugeot, great-grandson of the club’s founder, is trying to bring together a group of investors to buy FCSM from its Chinese owners, but time is running out.

Founded in 1928, the club was a model of stability for almost 90 years when it was owned by the Peugeot family. But in eight years, its Chinese owners have pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy.

The current owner, the Nenking consortium, a real estate specialist who no longer wishes to invest in the Franche-Comté club, has indicated that it is ready to part with it for 12 million euros. The club, 9th in Ligue 2 at the end of the last exercise, has for the moment been demoted to National by the DNCG. But if he were to file for bankruptcy, he could fall back to National 3, where he would lose his professional status and his training center which has brought out many major players and French internationals in recent decades. The club’s situation has created a stir in the region, where the move to the Chinese flag was greeted with great caution in 2015.

The only lifeline that still seems to be offered to the FCSM would be a takeover by Romain Peugeot and a group of investors, who are trying to raise the sum requested by Nenking.

According to the newspaper L’Equipe, Mr. Peugeot, a 33-year-old financier based in London, has filed a firm takeover offer to the Chinese group. “I do not wish to comment on this information”, however declared Romain Peugeot, joined by AFP.

In any case, it can count on the support of the Greater Belfort urban community, which has announced its intention to inject one million euros into its takeover project. “We spoke on the phone (with Romain Peugeot) this morning,” confirmed Damien Meslot, president (LR) of Grand Belfort on Friday. The community must leave during the day “a letter of intent” confirming a commitment “up to one million euros”, in the form of a subsidy. “A number of cover offers have disappeared one after the other,” commented Damien Meslot. “The most serious is that of Romain Peugeot, the great-grandson of the founder”.

He has already created a company to carry the takeover and a cooperative society of collective profit-sharing (Scic) is in the works, according to the elected official. The Grand Belfort grant could then be transformed into an equity investment.

On the other hand, Damien Meslot specifies that in the event of success of this recovery, the community will not intervene every year. And she doesn’t want to get involved in sports management. “We will have a look at financial management,” he warned, however. Damien Meslot does not want to let a “historic” club “disappear”. The FCSM is an element of “attractiveness of the metropolitan pole” and “part of the regional history”. Romain Peugeot “has six to seven million euros around him,” said Damien Meslot, and he is still looking for investors to raise the sum necessary to buy the club.

Local entrepreneurs are present. If the Chinese owner agrees to sell, it will then be necessary to convince the financial authorities of French football of the viability of the project. There is “emergency”, insisted Damien Meslot.

Indeed, according to L’Equipe, the club has until July 28 to seize the National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) and try to save its place in L2. “I call on the other local authorities to come to our side and to get involved”, added Mr. Meslot, referring to Pays de Montbéliard Agglomeration (PMA), the Burgundy-Franche-Comté Regional Council and the Departmental Councils of Doubs and the Territory of Belfort.

Contacts have been established between PMA and Romain Peugeot, confirms to AFP an internal source in the community. Sochaux is one of the founders of the first professional French Championship, in 1932-1933. The Cubs were French champions twice (1935, 1938) and won the Coupe de France twice (1937, 2007), as well as the Coupe de la Ligue (2004).