RC Strasbourg
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- For the Championnat de France Amateurs 2 club, see Vauban Strasbourg.
| RC Strasbourg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Racing Club de Strasbourg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | Racing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1906 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Stade de la Meinau Strasbourg, France (Capacity 29,230) |
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| Chairman | Philippe Ginestet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | Jean-Marc Furlan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Ligue 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006-07 | Ligue 2, 3rd (promoted) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Racing Club de Strasbourg, commonly known as RC Strasbourg, is a French football team, playing in the city of Strasbourg. They currently play in Ligue 1, having won promotion from Ligue 2 at the conclusion of the 2006-07 season.
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[edit] History
The club was founded in 1906 by a group of youngsters in the Neudorf neighborhood of what was then Straßburg, Elsaß in Germany, but is today Strasbourg, Alsace in France. With the help of their primary-school teacher, they formed a team called Fußball Club Neudorf. On 12 December, 1908 the club was renamed 1. FC Neudorf. In 1914, FC Neudorf rented the Haemmerle Garten for 300 marks a year, a location that would later become the site of the Stade de la Meinau. In the aftermath of World War I the territory of Alsace-Lorraine returned to France and on 11 January 1918 the club adopted the name Racing-Club Strasbourg-Neudorf until becoming simply Racing Club Strasbourg later in the year. RC joined French competition and by 1926 had captured its first title as champions of Alsace.
On June 10, 1933, at the restaurant de la Bourse, the club made the jump to the professional ranks. Several months later, they reached Division 1 for the first time, after a pair of two-leg matches, first against FC Mulhouse (0:0 and 3:1), and then against AS Saint-Étienne (2:0 and 4:4). Racing earned decent results in the mid-30s with a second place finish in 1934-35 and a third place finish the next season.
The Alsace region was reconquered by Germany soon after the outbreak of World War II and in August 1940 the team took up play as Rasensportclub Straßburg in the Gauliga Elsaß, a top flight division in German football. RSC captured their division in 1941 and participated in the national finals where they were put out in the first round by FC Mülhausen. The team earned second place results in each of the following two seasons and made an appearance in the opening round of the DFB Pokal (German Cup) in 1942.
Allied armies retook Alsace in 1944 and the club quickly resumed play as Racing Club Strasbourg. They remained in first division competition until, at the end of the 1948-49 season, it appeared the side would be relegated. However, neighbouring club SR Colmar liquidated their professional team, leaving room for Racing to stay up.
That reprieve was only temporary. Following the worst ever season in the clubs histroy in 1951-52, Racing was sent down to Division 2. The Bleus earned a measure of redemption in defeating US Valenciennes 3:0 in the French Cup final to claim their first major trophy. They repeated as cup winners in 1966 and then went on to several unremarked years of play. On April 4, 1970 they merged with AS Sportive Cultureele de la Meinau to briefly become Racing Club Strasbourg Meinau. On 3 June they entered into a second union, this time with CS des Pierrots 1922 Strasbourg, to form Le Racing Pierrots Strasbourg Meinau. The club spent the early 70s moving up and down between first and second division play. On 15 October 1976 they assumed their old identity as Racing Club Strasbourg.
The end of the 1976-77 season saw Racing promoted to Ligue 1 once again. They earned a third place finish and just two seasons later finished atop the Division 1 on 56 points with an undefeated home record. They were Champions of France for the first and only time in their history, and advanced to the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup the next season, where they were eliminated by Ajax Amsterdam.
[edit] Recent history
The Bleu's success was short-lived, and after several seasons of middling results, Racing was returned to second tier play in 1986 where they remained through the balance of the decade. After defeating Stade Rennais FC in 1991 by a score of 4;1, Strasbourg returned to the top flight. In 1995 they made an losing appearance in the final of the French Cup, but still merited a place in 1996 European Cup play. The team reached the last sixteen, where they were put out by Italian giants AC Milan.
In 1998 RC showed some promise of earning a good result early in the season, but ultimately settled for a 9th place finish. That same year, the IMG Group was chosen by the municipality to take control of the club. The players trained by the captain of the 1979 French champions, Jacky Duguépéroux, went on to capture the League Cup by defeating FC Girondins de Bordeaux. A good UEFA Cup run followed that victory. After a successful qualification round against Glasgow Rangers and Liverpool F.C., RC defeated Inter Milan 2:0 at home in Meinau, but fell 0:3 in the away leg.
Racing remained a competitive side and in 2001 captured their third French Cup in a final versus Amiens SC.
After a season in "purgatory" in 2001/2002, Racing re-took its place among the football elite in the Hexagon by finishing runners-up in Ligue 2.
The 2002/2003 season, in which Racing would come to finish in an encouraging 13th place, would be marked by the withdrawal of the IMG group and the arrival of a new and ambitious group led by Egon Gindorf, who succeeded Patrick Proisy as president, and by Marc Keller, named General Director.
Placed under the title "recapture", the 2003/2004 season needed to allow Racing to stabilize the club amongst the national elite and to win the favor of the Alsatian public once again.
In 2005, Racing won their second domestic trophy in four years when they beat Caen 2-1 in the final of the League Cup, a feat which provided them with a passport to the 2005/6 UEFA Cup.
Following the 2005-06 season, Racing were relegated into the Second Division. Jean-Pierre Papin took over from Jacky Duguépéroux, signing a two-year deal to coach the club as they look to return to the top flight. [1] They were successful in their quest, taking the third promotion place by one point over Amiens SC. Despite this success, however, Papin resigned as manager, citing internal relationship problems.[1] His successor is Jean-Marc Furlan.
[edit] Players
[edit] Current squad
As of September 7, 2007.
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[edit] Out on loan
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[edit] Honours
[edit] League
[edit] Cups
- Coupe de France winners (3): 1951, 1966, 2001
- Coupe de la Ligue winners (2): 1997, 2005
- UEFA Intertoto Cup winners (1): 1995
[edit] Records
- Largest victory: 8-1 (v. RC Paris, 1946/47) and 7-0 (v. OGC Nice, 1962/64)
- Largest defeat: 0-8 (v. Limoges, 1959/60)
- Record appearances: René Hauss (421)
[edit] Managerial history
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[edit] External links
- (French) Official website
