British funds Sparta Capital to complete Bordeaux takeover

British-based investment firm Sparta Capital successfully raised the necessary €10m funds to acquire historical French club Girondins de Bordeaux, according to Sud-Ouest. Sparta Capital had until Friday to do so to have a chance of reversing the club's exclusion from France's National football championships.

In financial difficulties for several years, it has been a dramatic decline for Les Girondins. It was only as recently as 2019 that the club were in the UEFA Europa League. The club suffered relegation to Ligue 2 back in 2022 and failed to return to the top-flight. Bordeaux then suffered an administrative relegation to the fourth tier two seasons later.

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Earlier in the summer, the DNCG – French football's financial watchdog – took the decision to exclude the club from the National Championships meaning that, at best, Bordeaux would participate in the sixth-tier R1 league.

Now that Sparta Capital have raised the funds to finance the upcoming season and meet the deadlines related to the continuation plan, Bordeaux need to secure their reinstatement in the fourth-tier through the appeal they filed with CNOSF – Comité National et Olympique Sportif Français – France's highest sporting authority.

Sparta Capital's takeover also means that the dreaded Gérard Lopez era at Bordeaux is over. The businessman led one of France's historic football clubs to the brink of compulsory liquidation. Sud-Ouest claims that Lopez sold the Bordeaux for one symbolic euro.

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