Supporters of French 'Nationale 2' fourth-tier club FC Girondins de Bordeaux wave the club’s flags during a protest ahead of a hearing at the Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion - DNGG, French football financial watchdog, following the six-time French champions' exclusion from national competitions, in Bordeaux, southwestern France July 19, 2026. Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP
Bordeaux: Bordeaux, once one of France's leading football clubs and the team where the country's new head coach Zinedine Zidane made his name, lurched further into trouble on Friday.
After years of crippling financial problems, the spectre of judicial liquidation is looming over the Girondins after the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) rejected their latest appeal against exclusion from the national leagues.
The measure, notified to the club on Friday, according to its vice-president Arnaud De Carli, means the six-time French champions are barred from playing in the fourth tier in the coming season, as they had hoped.
They have instead been relegated to the sixth tier.
Bordeaux have 15 days to file an appeal, but the fourth-tier season starts on August 22.
They were sanctioned for failing to provide the roughly ten million euros ($11.6 million) needed for the 2025-2026 financial year, finance that of 2026-2027 and meet debt payments.
Zidane played for Bordeaux between 1992 and 1996.
