ESTAC Troyes: The Sorrowful Story of Multi-Club Ownership

It's been a challenging few years for the current Ligue 2 leaders under City Football Group ownership.

“‘Scene from Goethe’s Faust’ by Edward Henry Corbould, 1852“ by Royal Opera House Covent Garden is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

It is a vicious Lernaean Hydra. Or so the story goes. But is that actually true? It probably depends on who you ask.

In any case, Strasbourg fan group Ultra Boys 90 have made their feelings abundantly clear. Fiercely critical of the Faustian pact struck on the banks of the Rhine between President Marc Keller and BlueCo in May 2023, they issued a blistering statement in March 2024 condemning what they saw as a betrayal of the club’s regional, fan-centred identity in favour of the corporate sheen of Todd Boehly and company:

“Le Racing is now little more than a financial asset, under the bosom of an investment fund that already owns another club. We have said it before and we will say it again: multi-club ownership kills football and we will fight it!”

These concerns certainly have plenty of credibility in the bank. Over the summer, it became painfully clear that the Stade de la Meinau had effectively been reduced to a Fachwerkhaus for talent deemed either too young or not quite up to scratch for Stamford Bridge. The controversy surrounding captain Emanuel Emegha’s pre-announced move to Fulham Road next summer only twisted the knife further, serving as yet another reminder of Strasbourg’s subservient position within the wider BlueCo ecosystem.

Financially, however, a summer outlay of €111 million - the highest in Ligue 1 - is a luxury very few in l’Hexagone can even dream of. Coupled with Liam Rosenior’s attractive football and the cut-throat goalscoring of new Argentinian striker Joaquín Panichelli, it becomes (perhaps cruelly) harder to summon much sympathy for a club suddenly emerging as bona fide contenders for a historic Champions League qualification.

Unsurprisingly, this means very little to many Strasbourgeois. An authentic club identity is a powerful thing, and certainly worth fighting for. Their hard-nosed stance has, in many ways, been vindicated by the recent experiences of ESTAC Troyes under City Football Group ownership. While the Champenois club are currently flying in Ligue 2, their infernal near-descent into the Championnat National two seasons ago remains a magnum opus of the problems inherent in multi-club ownership. Rebuilding stability has been no small task, and although their present trajectory looks promising, major question marks still linger over whether CFG’s long-term stewardship is ultimately good or bad for Les Aubistes.

“City Football Group“ by City Football Group Limited is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

La Foire de Troyes

A town of 60,000 inhabitants famed for its pretty medieval centre, Troyes clearly appealed to the City Football Group, who were evidently charmed by the possibility of writing their own French fairytale upon purchasing ESTAC in September 2020. Despite having long established themselves as a classic yo-yo club bouncing between Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, Les Aubistes‘ track record of producing stars such as Blaise Matuidi, Bryan Mbuemo and Djibril Sidibé was seen as well-suited to CFG’s ambition to deepen their foothold in the French market, with a strong emphasis on scouting and developing prospects for the wider group.

Winning the 2020/21 Ligue 2 title with the inexperienced Laurent Batlles at the helm - and with the promise of future CFG investment in the pipeline - Troyes appeared poised to break free from the curse of being a perpetual club ascenseur. However, important changes were already being made in the boardroom that would prove decisive in shaping the club’s near future. With François Vitali replacing Luis de Sousa as Sporting Director during the title-winning season, CFG further tightened their stranglehold on the club by appointing Aymeric Magne as President and bringing longtime CFG confidant Erick Mombaerts in as a consultant.

The first tangible signs of this new direction emerged in the summer transfer window ahead of Troyes’ return to Ligue 1. With the arrivals of Mama Baldé, Xavier Chavalerin, Adil Rami and Renaud Ripart, the club added the sort of top-flight experience required to stave off relegation. Yet the bizarre loan signings of Issa Kaboré and Patrick Roberts from Manchester City were a clear indication that Troyes were being unmistakably reshaped into a cog within a much larger machine, with the signing of Metinho - instantly loaned out and never to play a game for Les Aubistes - serving as an even starker precursor to the disaster to come.

ESTAC’s first season back in Ligue 1 ended in surprisingly solid fashion, even if it involved the mid-winter sacking of Laurent Batlles and the arrival of current Bordeaux manager Bruno Irles. A 15th place finish kept them clear of the drop, and there was genuine hope that 2022/23 might be the year Troyes finally began to anchor themselves in l’Hexagone’s top tier.

However, over the course of the summer, it became increasingly clear that the City Football Group’s player-trading strategy was dictating squad building at the Champenois club. The arrival - and instant loan - of record signing Savinho was certainly the most egregious case, but for a squad in dire need of retooling, the most notable additions were either loans for bit-part Manchester City players such as Marlos Moreno, promising but raw talents like Wilson Odobert, or former Ligue 1 stars who were at best past their peak, such as Rony Lopes. It certainly wasn’t the transfer window Troyes fans had been dreaming of.

Despite plenty of question marks throughout the line-up and rumours of dressing-room tensions between Irles and his squad, Troyes somehow found themselves sitting in a very respectable 13th place heading into the World Cup break. Yet Irles - in the midst of a six-game losing streak - would be relieved of his duties while the eyes of the world were transfixed on Qatar, a move the former defender claimed was the direct result of CFG’s over-meddling in Troyes’ affairs:

“For the management, the sporting project had to go more quickly towards the City project. There was a difference in points of view. I was convinced that it was incompatible with this team in Ligue 1.”

The man chosen by the bigwigs to lead Troyes into a glorious new era of ‘Champagne football’ was Patrick Kisnorbo. Whisked away from sister club Melbourne City, the appointment of the former Leicester City and Leeds United defender was perhaps an early attempt by CFG to sketch out a blueprint for internal promotion - one that every club in the ecosystem could eventually feed into. But in truth, the Australian had been handed the keys to a poison chalice. Aside from his lack of French - a skill that would probably come in handy when managing in France - Troyes’ lack of ambition in the winter window meant that a squad already in desperate need of rejuvenation was left in an increasingly squalid state, and as the second half of the season wore on, ESTAC simply collapsed.

Mismanaged, tactically inept and utterly bereft of confidence, Troyes would win only a solitary game for the remainder of the season before crashing back down into Ligue 2. Despite this farcical record, Kisnorbo was handed another chance to prove himself ahead of the 2023/24 season, yet results hardly improved: the Australian won only two more games before being sacked in late November with Les Aubistes sitting 17th in the league table.

The belated decision to sack Kisnorbo was not enough to shield CFG from the fan criticism that had been brewing. Frustratingly, the insistence on developing youngsters - noble in theory - was producing the opposite of on-pitch success, with fan group Magic Troyes 1997 urging fellow Troyens to join their boycott through the Objective: Empty Stadium! Save Our Club! movement in the dog days of Kisnorbo’s reign:

“Going to the stadium, knowing beforehand the result of the match is no longer possible! It is about time that the players and the management take responsibility for the club’s catastrophic situation. Recognising your errors, is that really a failure? It is for this reason that as of today, we, as a group, have decided to boycott home and away games.”

The concerns of the faithful were further vindicated when, despite the arrival of the experienced David Guion, a demotivated and traumatised squad were unable to escape the jaws of relegation. The shocking scenes following a dire draw with Valenciennes, in which players and fans hurled flares at each other, made headline-grabbing news but ultimately pointed to something more troubling: hijacked by CFG, the club’s local, family atmosphere had been abandoned in pursuit of a quick dollar.

Bordeaux’s own tragic demise would spare Troyes the indignity of playing in the Championnat National, but with off-the-pitch matters also at an all-time low (after failing to overturn a prison sentence for domestic violence, Aymeric Magne was replaced by Mattijs Manders, who spent most of his time as interim president in the Netherlands rather than in Champagne), it was clear that the club was in desperate need of reform.

“Antoine Sibierski 2024“ by ESTAC Troyes is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

Sanctify Yourself

Viewed within this context, Troyes’s current success can be considered semi-miraculous. The current Ligue 2 leaders look like a team transformed this season, boasting the division’s third-best attack and joint-strongest defence, much of it down to the good work of the underrated Stéphane Dumont. Since taking over last summer, the former Lille midfielder (despite some initial struggles) has stabilised a fractured squad and, having guided the club to a comfortable 10th place finish last season, has coaxed some genuinely attractive football out of Les Aubistes.

It has been a genuine joy to watch some of the swashbuckling football Troyes have produced at times this season. Yet perhaps more impressive, given the context of recent years, has been the determination and fighting spirit demonstrated by ESTAC. Particularly strong at the Stade de l’Aube, the league leaders have collected the most points from losing positions in Ligue 2 so far this campaign, a resoluteness their manager has praised:

“What is surprising, is we are able to win at home under different scenarios. That’s what interests me.”

Dumont can also thank Sporting Director Antoine Sibierski for his work since arriving last summer. Faced with the monumental task of rebuilding shattered team morale, the former Lille, Lens and Manchester City midfielder has brought a real sense of rigour and confidence - qualities sorely missing during the early CFG years:

“The club had lost a lot of the values which help in succeeding in any industry, and most notably in football.”

More importantly, Sibierski has intelligently recruited players who, while still fitting the broader CFG model, are actually well suited to Troyes and the bruising challenges of Ligue 2. Although he wasn’t able to bring in as many players to Champagne as he would have liked this summer - even a club with owners as wealthy as ESTAC’s have felt the pinch of the TV rights fiasco - those who have arrived in the charming medieval town have slotted in neatly to form a technically gifted, well-rounded collective.

In goal, Hillel Konaté has filled in admirably for the injured Nicolas Lemaître, with Ligue 2’s best defence expertly marshalled by tough-tackling, captain extraordinaire Adrien Monfray, the gung-ho Ismaël Boura and highly talented 19-year old French youth international Yvann Titi. In midfield, Martin Adeline has showcased his technical ability and gorgeous passing range in abundance, as has Antoine Mille, while Mouhamed Diop has arguably been one of the division’s standout players this season with his incredible work rate, strength in duels and knack for an important goal or two. Merwan Ifnaoui has also added plenty of creativity since arriving from Red Star in the summer, whilst in attack, young Mathys Detourbet’s silky, direct dribbling and Jaurès Assoumou’s strong, powerful runs have caused major problems for defences. Arguably the jewel in the crown, however, is Moroccan striker Tawfik Bentayeb: Ligue 2’s top goalscorer, with a real knack for exploiting space in the attacking third and an uncanny ability to arrive in front of goal at exactly the right moment.

More importantly, the current crop of Aubistes are helping to slowly reconnect the club with the locality it so disastrously upset a few seasons ago. Since arriving as club president in October 2024, Edward Pindi has worked hard to rebuild this relationship, speaking earlier in the year about his desire to reclaim public attention after the early disappointments of multi-club ownership:

“We want to give our public a team who are fun to watch.”

Having helped stabilise the club in Ligue 2 last season, Pindi has indicated that management has learned from previous errors:

“A team made up of eleven youngsters doesn’t work.”

It’s a new mode of savoir-faire that now seems to be pushing Troyes to new heights, and with a new training facility set to be built in the coming years, it offers a far more optimistic vision than the one based solely on player trading that nearly destroyed the club.

Yet despite these major changes, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The onus in recruitment remains to scout, sign and sell players for a profit, a necessity only exacerbated by the precarious financial situation in which ESTAC have recorded €52 million in losses over the last three years. CFG money has helped - Troyes were the second highest spenders in Ligue 2 this summer (albeit still a long way behind the astronomical sums thrown around by Saint-Étienne) - but how healthy this subservient position within the City Football Group is for the club’s long-term future remains dubious; memories of 2022, 2023 and 2024 still haunt the Stade de l’Aube. Even the construction of a new training complex in Rouilly-Saint-Loup - funded with €15 million of local government money - has caused a stir, given the club’s wealthy owners and especially in light of l’Hexagone’s well-documented current financial difficulties. As in Strasbourg, success carries a distinctly sour note for those living under the impersonal, unforgiving jaws of multi-club ownership.

Football’s Lernaean Hydra is perhaps not as vicious as it first appears. But in the case of multi-club ownership, it’s the mundaneness and impersonality of the whole ordeal that truly exasperates fans; the quiet dread of knowing, deep down, that no matter how much you love your club, decisions are not always being made in its best interests. ESTAC Troyes may be flying high at the moment, but it all feels painfully precarious, a situation that could erupt at any moment. City Football Group deserve some credit for helping to reconstruct Les Aubistes, but given the journey faithful Troyens have endured, it’s probably the bare minimum. Only time will tell whether CFG’s long-term stewardship proves ultimately good or bad for Troyes. For the club’s supporters, though, it remains a thoroughly anxious, uneasy limbo.