Club Français Paris

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The Club Français was a traditional French football club from Paris .

It was officially founded on September 13, 1892 ; In any case, this is the date of the official approval which was then required in France. However, the founders of the club, former students of the Collège Chaptal and the Lyceum Janson de Sailly , played football as early as 1890, and that very early in the association and no longer in the rugby version of this ball sport. This makes it one of the oldest football clubs in the country. The club colors of the club , as he was known in short, were pink and black. From 1903 he played in the Stade de la Porte de Briançon .

Its peculiarity lay in the fact that the Club Français only accepted French in its team. All other clubs at the turn of the century had almost only foreigners, mostly British or Belgians, in their ranks. As a result, the French federation USFSA introduced a "national quota" at its championships at the beginning of the 20th century, which initially made two, later three French in each team a condition.

history

Before the First World War

Immediately after its founding, the Club Français joined the only football association until then, the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA, founded in 1887), which organized regional championships from 1894, first only in Paris, from 1896/97 also in others Regions where football clubs existed (namely in the north and on the English Channel , around Bordeaux and on the Mediterranean coast). From 1898/99 the regional champions determined the French national champions of the USFSA in a final round for the Championnat de France . From 1905 onwards, several competing associations emerged that played their own championships - but the USFSA remained the association with the largest number of members, and most of the other traditional clubs in France (e.g. Standard AC , Racing Club de France and Cercle Athlétique from Paris, Le Havre AC) , Stade Helvétique Marseille , Olympique Lille , RC Roubaix and US Tourcoing ).

After its foundation, the Club Français initially played friendly competitions, of which a 2: 3 against the White Rovers in January 1893 was even reported in detail in the German magazine Spiel und Sport . In 1894 he took part in the very first Paris championship, but lost again in the semi-finals to the White Rovers , who then lost to Standard AC , which was dominant until 1901 ; in the following year, exactly the same constellation arose. But in 1896 the knockout system was replaced by an "everyone against everyone" round, and in April the club was the Paris champions - they had defeated all eight opponents. The team had already traveled to Belgium for two games in February of this year and beat Sporting Club Brussels and FC Antwerp .

The Stade Français team at the 1900 Olympic Games

It was not until 1899 that the CF was back in first place in Paris, but then refused to play the first national final against Le Havre AC (on the grounds that the championship cup, which had previously only been played in Paris, had to stay in this city forever according to the association's regulations); the USFSA then declared Le Havre a champion. In 1900 Club Français again reached the final against Le Havre and lost it again - this time on the field.

In the same year, the club represented France's colors at the Olympic football tournament ; he lost there against the football motherland England (more precisely: Upton Park FC ) relatively lightly 0: 4, but then won against Belgium ( Université de Bruxelles ) 6: 2 and thus the silver medal. After that, he did not come out again until 1918, when he was able to become champions of Paris for the fourth time in a round that was limited due to the war and at least the quarter-finals in the first national cup for clubs of all associations ( Coupe Charles Simon , since 1920 until today Coupe de France ) reached (2: 3 against the eventual winner Olympique de Pantin ).

Between the wars

The cup winning team from 1931

After the establishment of the unified French football association FFF (1919), the Club Français was able to win two more Paris championships (1929 and 1930) in the regional division of the game operations, which continued until 1932, but it attracted attention especially in the cup: in 1926 and 1927 it was both again in the quarterfinals, in 1931 he won this competition after victories including Olympique Marseille (this required three, according to other sources even four games), Excelsior AC Roubaix , OGC Nice and Sports Olympiques Montpelliérains (3-0 final victory).

In October 1924 the Club Français made German-French history when it received the Berlin Tennis Borussia for a friendly match in Paris. It was the first sporting test of strength between two club teams of the "arch enemies" after the World War; a month later there was a second meeting in Berlin.

With its successes, CF was naturally one of the 20 clubs that determined the French champions in Division 1 (which was still divided into two parts in the first year) when it introduced a national, professional league operation (1932) . The club finished 8th in its group, but since the league was reduced to 14 teams in 1933/34, this meant relegation to the second division . The Club Français had the most goal- hungry storm of all first division clubs and with Robert Mercier also the very first top scorer in French professional football in their ranks - but he also had the second worst defense of the D1 .

A year later, the second division ended the chapter of professional football for financial reasons. In 1940 the club was dissolved.

League affiliation and achievements

The Club Français only had professional status from 1932 to 1934; first class ( Division 1 , renamed Ligue 1 since 2002 ) he only played in 1932/33.

  • French champions : Nothing, the best position so far was table rank 8 in Group A (1932/33); but Champion de France of the USFSA 1896
  • French cup winner : 1931
  • Paris Masters: 1896, 1899, 1900, 1918 (USFSA), 1929, 1930 (FFF)

National player

In brackets: number of international matches for Club Français and period of these appearances

literature

  • Thierry Berthou / Collectif: Dictionnaire historique des clubs de football français. Pages de Foot, Créteil 1999 - Volume 1 (A-Mo) ISBN 2-913146-01-5 , Volume 2 (Mu-W) ISBN 2-913146-02-3

Remarks

  1. ↑ Article “Paris Letter” of January 14, 1893, p. 11f. (as a scan on the website of the University and State Library of Münster)
  2. ↑ "You would have been stoned ..." The games against Club Français in 1924 . http://geschichten.tebe.de ; official history website of Tennis Borussia. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  3. ↑ together with Walter Kaiser from Stade Rennais UC (15 league hits each)