 | ||||
| Full name | Sporting Club Bastiais | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | I Turchini (The Blues), I Lioni di Furiani (The Lions ofFuriani)[1], Le Sporting (The Sporting), Les Bleus (The Blues) | |||
| Short name | SCB | |||
| Founded | 1905; 120 years ago (1905) | |||
| Ground | Stade Armand-Cesari[2] | |||
| Capacity | 16,048 | |||
| President | Claude Ferrandi | |||
| Manager | Benoît Tavenot | |||
| League | Ligue 2 | |||
| 2024–25 | Ligue 2, 8th of 18 | |||
| Website | www | |||
 Current season | ||||
Sporting Club Bastia (Corsican:Sporting Club di Bastia, commonly referred to asSC Bastia or simplyBastia;French:[bastja]ⓘ) is a French professionalfootball club based inBastia on the island ofCorsica. The club plays inLigue 2, the second tier ofFrench football, having won the2020–21 Championnat National.[3] The club plays its home matches at theStade Armand Cesari located within the city. SC Bastia is known for its strong association withCorsican nationalism.[4]
Bastia's main historical success include reachingthe final of the1977–78 edition of theUEFA Cup. The team was defeated by Dutch clubPSV Eindhoven (0–0 at home, 0–3 away). Domestically, Bastia won thesecond division ofFrench football in1968 and2012, and theCoupe de France in1981. During the club's infancy, it was league champions of the "Corsican League" 17 times. They are the local rivals ofAjaccio and contest theDerby Corse.
The club has signed several famous players in its history, notably includingDragan Džajić,Claude Papi,Johnny Rep,Roger Milla,Michael Essien,Alex Song,Sébastien Squillaci,Jérôme Rothen,Antar Yahia andFlorian Thauvin.
In 2017 the club was relegated to theChampionnat National 3 due to financial irregularities and lost its professional licence.I Turchini regained professional status in 2021 following promotion to Ligue 2.
Sporting Club de Bastia was founded in 1905 by a Swiss named Hans Ruesch. He taught German in high school inBastia. The first president of Bastia was Emile Brandizi. The Corsican club celebrated its debut on the Place d'Armes of Bastia, in the light of a single gas burner.[5]
The club began its professional journey in 1965, inDivision 2. After three successful seasons, it was crowned Champion of France's Second Division in1968, joining the elite. The first season was difficult, but the club still maintained its place. Thus began a decade widely considered the finest in club history.In 1972, the club reached, for the first time, thefinal of theCoupe de France againstOlympique de Marseille (losing 2–1), getting it its first qualification in theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup, which led toelimination against the excellent team ofAtlético Madrid.
In 1977, Bastiafinished third in theDivision 1 with the best offence in the league, with magnificentDragan Džajić as a left winger[6] andqualified for theUEFA Cup.
This is the beginning of the team built around playmakerClaude Papi, which was composed of many talented players such asJohnny Rep of theNetherlands;Jean-François Larios, amidfielder andFrench international; andCharles Orlanducci, the solid libero nicknamed the"Lion of Vescovato".
The team eliminated successivelySporting Lisbon,Newcastle United,Torino,Carl Zeiss Jena andGrasshoppers Zurich before afinal defeat toPSV Eindhoven (0–0, 0–3). Of all the victories, the 3–2 win inTurin made the most lasting impression, the"Toro" being undefeated for two seasons on their home pitch. It is also during this match that Bastia marks the best goal of that time, a volley from 22 meters by Jean-François Larios.
The final would, however, end with misfortune. First, with a first leg played atFuriani on an unplayable pitch,[7] heavy rain having fallen on Corsica on 26 April 1978. Unfortunately, theYugoslav referee postponed the meeting because of the proximity to World Cup inArgentina that was scheduled a few weeks later. Despite Bastia's dominance, the meeting ended with a goalless draw, 0–0.The final return, 9 May, lasted only 24 minutes. This is the time it tookPSV Eindhoven to score the first goal, followed by two more late in the game (3–0). The townsfolk will attribute the defeat of Bastia to fatigue accumulated in the league (3 games in 6 days in the days before the final return) and also the rain-soaked pitch in the first leg at Furiani.
Bastia then realised the greatest moment in Corsican sport (see the movieForza Bastia ofJacques Tati). The ECBC club, from a town of only 40,000 souls, had done more than challenge the major capitals ofEuropean football: it had allowed the whole of Corsica to meet, at a time when the nationalist movement was born, three years after the episode of Bastia, in 1975.
Three years after thatfinal, the Bastia won its first trophy with theCoupe de France1980–81. This was a prestigious victory for the Corsican club facingSt. Etienne ofMichel Platini. The final was played atParc des Princes in front of more than 46,000 spectators, including the newly elected President of the Republic,François Mitterrand.
After 18 years in the elite, the club went down to the second division at the end of the1985–86 season, and stayed for eight years. This era is marked by the catastrophe of Furiani: In the1991–92 season, the club reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. The match was played atStade Armand Cesari, or"Furiani Stadium", against Olympique de Marseille which dominated theChampionship of France. The enthusiasm was such that was decided to hastily construct a temporary stand of 10,000 seats. The upper part of the platform collapsed a few minutes before kick-off killing 18 and injuring 2,300.[8]
The club returned to the elite for the1994–95 season and that year reached thefinal of theLeague Cup. This era was marked by the work ofFrédéric Antonetti, who coached the club between 1990 and 1994 and oversaw the development of new talents (Morlaye Soumah,Laurent Casanova, andCyril Rool).
Antonetti coached the first team from 1994 to 2001 (with an interlude in1998–99) and was involved in the recruitment of players such asLubomir Moravcik,Pierre-Yves André,Frédéric Née,Franck Jurietti, andAnto Drobnjak, the latter of whom was the club's top scorer in his third season. At the end of the1995–96 season, Drobnjak was also second in the Championship scoring charts with 20 goals, one goal behind top scorerSonny Anderson.[9]
In the1996–97 season the club finished in 7th place in Ligue 1, just 3 points off the top, thus qualifying for theIntertoto Cup. The club wonthe Intertoto Cup, and qualified for the UEFA Cup for the1997–98 season. Bastia eliminatedBenfica in the round of 32 before falling toSteaua Bucharest in the next round. This defeat left a bitter taste due to the domination Bastia had in both matches.[10] The performance of Bastia in the league in the following years allowed it to qualify two more times for the Intertoto Cup, in1998 and2001, but failed to re-qualify for the UEFA Cup.
After the departure of Antonetti in 2001, the club would not finish in the top ten again. They did reach thefinal of the Coupe de France in2001–02; in their midfield wasMichael Essien, who would go on to play forLyon andChelsea.[11] Another player groomed by Bastia wasdefenderAlex Song, who later played forArsenal andBarcelona.[12]
Between 2002 and 2005, Bastia was managed byRobert Nouzaret,Gerard Gili,François Ciccolini, and lastly the duo ofMichel Padovani andEric Durand. Each failed to take the team to the top ten, the final league placing actually falling each year (see Section championship history), despite the first team featuring the likes ofTony Vairelles,Florian Maurice,Franck Silvestre,Lilian Laslandes (all internationals) andCyril Jeunechamp.
In the winter break of the2004–05 season, the club fell into the relegation zone. Bastia recruitedChristian Karembeu, member of the1998 World Cup-winning France team, but Bastia would still be relegatedto Ligue 2 at the end of the season after 11 consecutive years in Ligue 1.
In 2005, the club was relegated toLigue 2. Five years later, Bastia was in serious danger of descent into theChampionnat National. Bastia was officially relegated to the National on 7 May 2010, following a draw (0–0) withTours at the 37th matchdayof Ligue 2.[13]
On 6 July 2010, the club was administratively relegated toChampionnat de France amateur by theDirection Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG). The club actually had a deficit of €1.2 million, which was filled by grants from local governments (Territorial Community of Corsica, theGeneral Council of Haute-Corse).[14] On 23 July 2010, the Federal Council of theFrench Football Federation authorised Bastia to play in the2010–11 season, as requested by theNational Olympic Committee and French sports (CNOSF) after the DNCG had refused.[15]
Despite this disrupted pre-season, Bastia performed well in the transfer window, with no fewer than six rookies. As for departures, there is mainly the transfer ofFlorent Ghisolfi (Reims) andChristophe Gaffory (Vannes) as well as Pierre-Yves André who decided to end his career.[16]
Faruk Hadžibegić was fired from the managers' post after poor results, and the job then passed toFrédéric Hantz.[17] On 22 April 2011, Bastia officially earned itsplace in Ligue 2 after a game againstFrejus-Saint Raphael.[18] No fewer than 500 townsfolk had made the trip. On 7 May 2011, Bastia become the National champion, following a victory overCréteil by 2 goals to one, with Bastia finishing with a record tally of 91 points and unbeaten at home throughout the campaign. Sporting was leading at the half, but equalised byDavid Suarez, thenIdrissa Sylla allowed Bastia to take the lead in the 92nd minute in a crazy atmosphere.[19] At the end of the match, the pitch at Armand Cesari was invaded by Bastia fans, happy to celebrate with their players and their coach, Frédéric Hantz, this new title.
Bastia, newly promoted from the National, welcomedJérôme Rothen,Toifilou Maoulida,François Marque,Ludovic Genest andFlorian Thauvin into the club.[20] Bastia started off on a good note, falling off slightly in the autumn. From early February until the beginning of April, Bastia did not lose a single match.[21] On 23 April 2012, in a full Stadium Armand Cesari, Bastia virtually secured their place amongst the elite by winning againstChâteauroux (2–1).[22] On 1 May 2012, Bastia became champion of Ligue 2,[23] 44 years after its first and only league title, with their victory overMetz at Armand Cesari. On 11 May 2012, Bastia won its last game of the season at home 2–1 againstNantes thanks to goals fromJérôme Rothen and David Suarez.[24] The club was also on a 2-year run of being undefeated at home. Bastia became part of the very exclusive club of teams undefeated at home in Europe. Several players played their last game against Nantes in the colours of Bastia, including David Suarez andJacques-Désiré Périatambée.
Bastia won all the trophiesUNFP for Ligue 2:Jérôme Rothen, best player;Macedo Novaes, best goalkeeper; andFrédéric Hantz, best coach, who placed five players in the team line-up (Macedo Novaes,Féthi Harek,Wahbi Khazri,Sadio Diallo and Jérôme Rothen).[25]
In the2016–17 Ligue 1 season, after four seasons in the top division, Bastia finished bottom of the Ligue 1 table and were relegated toLigue 2.
On 22 June 2017, Bastia were relegated again toChampionnat National after theDNCG had recommended a further demotion for the club. Bastia were the subject of an audit on their books which resulted in yet another demotion for failing to guarantee they had the finances to compete in Ligue 2. The DNCG released a statement on the same day stating “Following its audit today before the DNCG, Sporting Club Bastia has been given notice of a provisional relegation". In August 2017 following bankruptcy proceedings, the clubs professional section was liquidated. The club was taken over by local entrepreneurs Claude Ferrandi (Ferrandi Group) and Pierre-Noël Luiggi (Oscaro group). Following the takeover, the club restarted with its prior reserve team inChampionnat National 3.[26][27] After a difficult first season in National 3, the club would embark on a series of back-to-back promotions, starting with promotion to theChampionnat National 2 in the 2018–19 season,[28] and then to theChampionnat National in the 2019–20 season, by being top of the National 2 Group A table when the season was curtailed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[29] Bastia achieved their third successive promotion after being crowned champion of the2020–21 Championnat National.[30]
At the beginning of the 2019-2020Championnat National 2, the club announced[31] the creation of a cooperative structure, under the form of aSociété coopérative d'intérêt collectif, which allows anyone identifying in different types of supporter categories to invest and hold shares in the club. The voting rights structure and board is divided into four colleges:
This structure allows the club to involve any type of supporter into the clubs decision-making, in a transparent structure.
SC Bastia returned to professional football for the first time since its bankruptcy in 2017, playing in the2021–22 Ligue 2. After a difficult start to the season which would result in the sacking[32] of managerMathieu Chabert on September 22nd, following a 2-1 defeat away to Valenciennes, with Bastia 18th in the table, just before the derby againstAC Ajaccio. The club would then announce the hiring ofRégis Brouard on October 2, 2021.[33] The club would go on to a comfortable mid-table finish in 12th.
Thefollowing season, the club would go on to an up-and-down first half of season, before an extremely strong second half that would see Regis Brouard guide the club to a 4th place finish, having for a long time looked towards promotion in a three-way fight with Bordeaux and Metz. During the summer break, expectations were high and the fans wanted to see the club fight for promotion. The club would go on to have a difficult first half of the season, being 15th at the halfway point. In a repeat of the previous sacking, coach Regis Brouard would be sacked following a 3-1 defeat away to Valenciennes and just before the derby against Ajaccio on January 29th.[34] Reserve team coachMichel Moretti and assistant coachLillian Laslandes were brought on as caretaker coaches until the end of the season, guiding the team to a 13th place finish.
The club announced the arrival and return ofFrédéric Antonetti as Technical Director[35] on March 26th 2024, with the responsibility of overseeing the sporting policy of the first team as well as the youth and reserve teams. Benoit Tavenot[36] would then be named first team coach on June 5th, also returning to SC Bastia for the2024–25 Ligue 2 season.
Stade Armand Cesari, also known as Stade Furiani, is the main football stadium in Corsica. It is located in Furiani, and is used by SC Bastia. In 1992, the stadium hosted thesemi-finals of theCoupe de France during which a temporary grandstand collapsed, killing 18 people and injuring nearly 3,000.[37]
Totally obsolete and even dangerous (barbed wire around the ground, dilapidated stands), the stadium hosted the1978 UEFA Cup Final. The stadium's capacity was then less than 12,000 seats, in precarious conditions, heavy rain having fallen on Corsica that day, turning the ground into a quagmire, which handicapped the outcome of this decisive match (0–0).[37] The crowd of 15,000 spectators announced appears exaggerated, but given the fervor not hesitate to stand up, packed tightly, to attend the game. The record attendance at the stadium was set on 1 September 2012, when 15,505 people saw Bastia lose againstSt. Etienne (0–3) in a league match.[37][38] Behind it the following record was set in 1978, when 15,000 people saw Bastia draw againstPSV Eindhoven (0–0, 1978) in theUEFA Cup final matches.[37]
For the 2011–12 season, the club decided to change the logo. This is the explanation;"1- Replacing the name "SCB". Spoken in the aisles of Armand Cesari since its inception. "Bastia" is the club of the city. 2- To recall the historic jersey from 1978, the shield has a moor's head, from the Testa Mora Flag. 3- It also reappeared as in the 70s and the heyday of the club. 4- The dominant color is blue. Always accompanied by white edging and black as official colours of the club since 1992."[39]
Bastia has a large number of supporters amongCorsicans, and their supporters frequently display elements ofCorsican nationalism, such as the frequent use of thelocal language andsymbols,[40][41] and support for theisland's independence.[42] The fans are known as theTurchini, meaning "Blues" in Corsican.
The fans have a rivalry with most mainland supporters, however, their most fierce rivals areNice with whom they contest theDerby de la Mediterranée, although the derby can also refer to rivalries withMarseille andMonaco. They also have a rivalry withParisian clubPSG[43] due to political tensions between thecapital and Corsica.
The other large rivalry is theCorsican derby with fellow islandersAC Ajaccio, and to a lesser extentGazélec Ajaccio, with whom they compete over the dominance of the island.[44][45]
Since 2004, the Bastia ultras have maintained a relationship of friendship and respect with the Nuova Guardia, the historicTorres ultras group.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Appearances[edit]
Last update: 7 March 2017. | Top scorers[edit]
| French internationals[edit]
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| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Manager |  Benoît Tavenot |
| Assistant Managers | Michel MorettiLilian Laslandes |
| Goalkeeper Coach | Dominique Agostini |
| Fitness Coaches | Jean Akakpo Tom Le Rhun |
| Video Analyst | Hugo Hantz |
| Doctors | Francois Brochet Roger Laurenzi |
| Physiotherapists | Lise Betton |
| Osteopath |  Jean-Christophe Guidicell |
Boumedienne Abderrhamane (1957 – 1961)François Fassone (1961 – 1963)
Gyula Nagy (1963 – 1964)André Strappe (1964 – 1965)Gyula Nagy (1965 – 1966)Lucien Jasseron (1966 – 1969)Rachid Mekhloufi (1969)Edmond Delfour andRachid Mekhloufi (1969 – 1970)Edmond Delfour (1970)Gyula Nagy (1970 – 1971)Jean Vincent (28 February 1971 – 31 October 1971)Pierre Cahuzac (1 November 1971 – 1979)Jean-Pierre Destrumelle (1979 – 1980)Antoine Redin (1980 – 1985)Alain Moizan (31 August 1985 – 30 November 1985)Antoine Redin (1 December 1985 – 1986)Roland Gransart (1986 – 1991)René Exbrayat (1991 – 1992)Léonce Lavagne (1992 – 1994)
Frédéric Antonetti (2 October 1994 – 1998)
Henryk Kasperczak (1998 – 18 October 1998)Laurent Fournier (19 October 1998 – 15 April 1999)José Pasqualetti (15 April 1999 – 30 June 1999)Frédéric Antonetti (1 July 1999 – 30 June 2001)Robert Nouzaret (1 July 2001 – 30 June 2002)Gérard Gili (1 July 2002 – 30 June 2004)François Ciccolini (1 July 2004 – 15 April 2005)Éric Durand andMichel Padovani (15 April 2005 – 30 June 2005)Bernard Casoni (1 July 2005 – 30 June 2009)Philippe Anziani (1 July 2009 – 25 November 2009)Michel Padovani (25 November 2009 – 8 December 2009)
Faruk Hadžibegić (8 December 2009 – 30 June 2010)Frédéric Hantz (1 July 2010 – 17 May 2014)Claude Makélélé (24 May 2014 – 3 November 2014)Ghislain Printant (3 November 2014 – 28 January 2016)François Ciccolini (28 January 2016 – 27 February 2017)
Rui Almeida (27 February 2017 – 26 June 2017)Réginald Ray (26 June 2017 – 17 August 2017)Stéphane Rossi (17 August 2017 – 23 October 2019)Frédéric Née (interim) (24 October 2019 – 28 October 2019)Mathieu Chabert (28 October 2019 – 22 September 2021)Cyril Jeunechamp andFrédéric Zago (interim) (22 September – 2 October 2021)Régis Brouard (2 October 2021 - 29 January 2024)Michel Moretti andLilian Laslandes (29 January 2024 - 5 June 2024)Benoît Tavenot (5 June 2024 - Present)
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