Les Bleus embrace their regal heritage but face a battle royal to survive in National 1
Their badge a magnificent golden orb ringed by bright rays radiating towards the French royal symbol of the fleur-de-lys, FC Versailles have a lot to live up to. Basking in the shadow of the world’s most sumptuous royal palace can’t be easy for a club currently fighting for survival in the French third division, National 1.
This Friday, January 24, FCV host local rivals and fellow strugglers Paris 13 Atletico in a bid to lay claim to three vital points after five straight defeats stretching back to November.
Versailles, the football team, are not only ignored by the 15 million annual visitors to Versailles, the palace, none of these sightseers can bookend their day out by watching a semi-pro game next door anyway. Les Bleus have had to switch fixtures to distant Chambly way north of Paris or the Stade Jean-Bouin beside the Parc des Princes.
A few steps from the tree-lined avenue de Paris that leads up to the extravagant domain of the Sun King, the Stade Montbauron doesn’t cut the mustard for third-tier football in France. Ironically, the reason is light – or lack of it.
While all clubs at National 1 level and above are required to have stadiums with floodlights, restrictions around the Palace of Versailles forbid the erection of lighting pylons within a decreed radius of five kilometres.
As their municipal ground is only a few hundred metres from where French royalty entertained until 1789, FCV’s owners must either pray for relegation or move games elsewhere. Hence prosaic Chambly 40 minutes from Paris or the pricy-to-hire Jean-Bouin.
And yet, now backed by the scion of a supermarket dynasty, this is not a club without ambition. Behind the scenes, a new potentate is looking to wield his influence at Versailles. Recently installed as co-owner and president, Alexandre Mulliez, is the grandson of Gérard, creator of the Auchan global chain of hypermarkets, also behind the familial company that oversees Decathlon, Leroy Merlin and scores of other nationwide enterprises.
Well versed in image and branding, in 2024 Mulliez persuaded charismatic Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly to come on board as a third co-owner. For the 2024-25 season, the 38-year-old Mulliez engineered a deal with Kappa to create an opulent first-team shirt, complemented by fold-down collars and inspired by the global draw of the name ‘Versailles’, ‘the very symbol of French luxury’, according to the e-commerce guru.
The third kit ‘sources its inspiration from the majestic gardens of the Palace of Versailles’ – note the fleur-de-lys sewn in gold behind the collar, amid the differing tones of maroon.
After decades of ignoring the palace up the road, the club now seems keen to embrace its heritage. Results, however, have been a different matter – and sport, as Pierre Gasly well knows, is a results game.
FC Versailles owe their existence to a sporting influencer of the old-school variety, heroic tennis star, Jean Borotra. In 1940, the former Wimbledon champion was made national head of sport by the Nazi-compliant Vichy government. Among other war-time measures, he merged five local clubs in Versailles, one dating back to 1911, to create the multi-sport Entente Sportive Versaillaise. Other moves on the part of the Bounding Basque, as he was known, or even just his status alone, saw him hauled away by the Gestapo.
In the last week of the war, the Biarritz-born Olympian lived up to his nickname by leaping from the walls of his Tyrolean castle prison to gather Allied troops, brave the ensuing firefight and help liberate the camp.
Back in Versailles, under Borotra’s direction, the local council had opened a sports park. It was sited, just as the Sun King Louis had envisioned for his palace and gardens, by the sloping expanse of Montbauron. The hill had no baronial or noble ties, this was just how it first appeared in medieval records.
While Montbauron’s waters still feed the glorious fountains of Versailles, the initial namesake sports facilities were somewhat more modest. So modest, in fact, that ES Versailles continued to play elsewhere. The booming post-war economy, and the reconfiguration of ES as Racing Club de Versailles, duly pushed the authorities to establish a new Montbauron complex in 1961.
For its grand opening, nearly 20,000 spectators watched RC Versailles take on a Paris XI and the original, illustrious Racing play the glamour team of the day, Stade de Reims. In between, the great middle-distance runner Michel Jazy set a world record for the 2,000 metres.
Over the course of the decade, the Stade Montbauron continued to enjoy considerable prestige, welcoming the French national team for a warm-up game behind closed doors and a Euro U-18 qualifying fixture.
But RC Versailles remained firmly in the regional divisions, only rising to the third tier in 1986. Three years later, the football department broke away to form a new entity, FC Versailles 78. The number had no regal connotations, it’s just the local postcode.
Unable to keep hold of the young talent now developing in the burgeoning suburbs – local boy Hartem Ben Arfa arrived briefly from nearby Boulogne-Billancourt, Thierry Henry’s season-long sojourn allowed him score the two goals to beat PSG in the French Youth Cup – FC Versailles stalled. Even the bizarre windfall of €60,000 resulting from Henry’s later transfer to Barcelona failed to lift les Bleus out of the doldrums.
Things picked up after the arrival of motivational coach Youssef Chibhi in 2014. His side slowly scaled the league pyramid, through hardly challenged the stadium’s now reduced capacity of 7,000.
In 2021, a change of ownership structure, new investment and a new image, reintroducing a sparkling sun on the club badge, chimed perfectly with a credible challenge for promotion out of the fourth tier. Not only did this succeed but FCV went on a history-making run in the Coupe de France, swatting aside Toulouse to reach the semi-finals. Les Bleus then gave Nice a right royal runaround in front of nearly 27,000 at the Allianz Riviera, falling to two second-half goals.
And, for the first time since their renaissance in 1989, Versailles were in the third tier. This, of course, triggered the floodlight decree – until 2022, the French football authorities had allowed the club to schedule home games in the afternoon.
Worse, a scandal broke of quite astonishing vulgarity. Youssef Chibhi, the manager behind the club’s painstaking ascent since 2014, seemingly had a penchant for making inappropriate home movies without the subject’s knowledge, let alone permission.
With their former coach in court, FC Versailles rallied to maintain third-tier status. Incoming president Alexandre Mulliez hired a string of coaches, including former Liverpool and Rangers defender Grégory Vignal, but to little avail.
As crowds barely scraped into four figures, recent Women’s Champions League-winning manager Jean-Luc Vasseur only lasted until October 2024 in his bid to keep Versailles afloat. Former Lyon youth coach Jordan Gonzalez now has his work cut out to ensure les Bleus stay in the same division as sleeping giants Nancy, Nîmes and Sochaux.
If FCV do slip down to National 2 and football returns to the Stade Montbauron, curious visitors should treat themselves to a pre-match drink in the stately Montbauron pub nearby, all original art, gleaming billiard tables and FC Versailles match posters.
Until then, the trek to the recently opened Stade Walter-Luzi in Chambly is no idle undertaking – the train from the Gare du Nord in Paris takes 40 minutes and Chambly station is at the opposite end of town to the recreational greenery in which the stadium sits. French speakers can also book a seat on the free bus service from Versailles offered by the club.
For FCV games in Paris, métro station Porte de Saint-Cloud (line 9) serves the Stade Jean-Bouin as well as the Parc des Princes alongside – just as the timeless café Les Deux Stades between them caters to both.
FC Versailles v Paris 13 Atletico, 7.30pm, Friday, January 24. Stade Walter-Luzi, chemin de Roquerolles, 60230, Chambly. Tickets (€5, free under-26s) also allow holders to arrange a free seat on the shuttle bus that leaves from the Sept Lieux bar/restaurant (3 avenue de Paris) in Versailles at 5.45pm, returning at 9.45pm from Chambly.
