Today I'm going back 23 years to 1999 and a match that I managed to attend whilst I lived in France. It's one that I'm quite proud to have attended actually. The venue for the match was, the Stade Yves du Manoir (named after a Rugby player!) and was the main stadium used for the 1924 Olympic Games. It is expected to be used in the forthcoming 2024 Olympics too, as a venue for "Field Hockey" (that's hockey to the Brits but is referred to as Field Hockey in Canada to distinguish it from Hockey (known as Ice Hockey to the Brits!)). More importantly in my opinion, the stadium was the venue for the 1938 World Cup Final between Italy and Hungary. So here's a question for you: how many of the stadiums used for a World Cup Final have you visited? For me, in addition to the Stade Yves du Manoir, I've managed to visit the Old Wembley Stadium, the Azteca in Mexico City (although not for a match), the Olympic Stadium in Munich (again not for a match), the Olympic Stadium in Rome (for the Final), the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (again for the Final) and the Stade de France. That's 7 of the 20 Final venues covered: not bad but I suspect there's plenty of ground hoppers out there who can better that.
How's your French? The programme entitled "Ciel et Blanc" translates as the "Sky-Blues and Whites" so I suppose that Racing Club must be a French version of Coventry City. Their nickname in France, perhaps strangely, is "Les Racingmen" and not Les Racinghommes". I suppose the anglicised nickname just sounds better, even in France?
Racing Club de France (or Racing CF 92 as they were known at the time) are based in the Paris suburb of Colombes and were founded in 1882. The club were founder members of France's Ligue 1 and won League title once in 1936 as well as winning the Coupe de France (French FA Cup) five times. Sadly for a club with such a storied history, Racing Club have now sunk to the Championnat National 3 (the fifth tier of French Football) which is semi-professional and regional. As a resident of Warwick and an occasional follower of Racing Club Warwick, it's nice to have visited another Racing Club. There are several others around the world which I must look into visiting one day!
AS Saint Priest (or Association Sportive de Saint Priest to give them their full name) is located in the Lyon Metroplitan area and in the Auvergne-Rohne-Alps region of central France. They were formed as recently as 1945 and currently ply their trade in the Championnat National 2 (the fourth tier of French football).
The game itself? Well it got off to a blistering start with Racing Club two goals to the good within the first five minutes through Laurent and Lagnaoui before being pegged back after 29 minutes thanks to a goal from Saint-Priest's Khelfi. It proved to be just a consolation however as Racing Club came out on top with the match finishing 2-1.
The Championnat de France National is the third tier of French football and Racing Club finished the season in a respectable fourth place, three points behind promoted US Creteil and five behind Champions Louhans-Cuiseaux. Sadly, Saint-Priest were relegated and they could well have finished bottom but for the withdrawal of Sporting Toulon before the season commenced.
CRB Match No. 1162
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