Sochaux could well be saved from bankruptcy. For two months, the club tried to obtain authorization from the DNCG to play the coming season in National, the third division of French football. Obtained on Thursday August 17, this authorization would allow, after confirmation from the French Football Federation (FFF), to avoid bankruptcy at Football Club Sochaux-Montbéliard. Jean-Claude Plessis and Pierre Wantiez, both at the head of a group of private investors, presented an FCSM2028 project as well as a budget. These last two plans have obviously convinced the DNCG.
“FC Sochaux-Montbéliard had asked the French Football Federation to register for the National Championship and maintain its professional status,” the club wrote in a statement. “This was granted to him following the hearing held before the Professional Club Control Commission (DNCG) on Thursday August 17 and was validated by the LFP (Professional Football League). The FFF will decide in the next few hours, ”details the press release.
Jean-Claude Plessis will take over the presidency of the club and Pierre Wantiez the general management, the latter revealed during a press video conference in the afternoon.
“The problem, it starts tomorrow, tempered Jean-Claude Plessis. It was almost the fight of my life. It’s not won yet, we don’t have a team, we’ll have to make the team […] The objective is not to go down, and to go up next season. »
Ninth in Ligue 2 last season, the almost century-old club had been abandoned by its owner, the Chinese real estate group Nenking, in great financial difficulty.
It was then the club’s former president Jean-Claude Plessis, at the helm from 1999 to 2008, and Pierre Wantiez, who had returned expressly from Le Havre AC, who took up the torch, initially managing to find a sales agreement with Nenking before convincing the DNCG.
“We had a very good file, well balanced, with investors from Franche-Comté, people from home,” said Jean-Claude Plessis. I think it was a very appreciated thing. […] The world of football wanted us to get out of this. »
