Updated 29th September CUPS. The draw for the League Cup takes place on Saturday 9th October. This involves the clubs of Division Two plus the three professional clubs in the National: Red Star 93, Beauvais & Martigues. Updated 28th September NEXT STOP - THE AUVERGNE. Clermont Foot Auvergne, is the next port of call of Red Star 93. Stade Gabriel Montpied (10 363 places), 4 rue Adrien Mabrut 63100 Clermont-Ferrand (Tel. +33 4 73 24 62 57).
CLERMONT-FERRAND (capital of the Puy-de-Dôme region), 170000 habitants. Academy & university. In 1095, Pope Urbain II sat on the council at Clermont which declared the First Crusade. Updated 27th September AGASSON - THE RETURN ? Very improbable, but only a flying visit this time from our ex-number 10, just to follow the progress of his old club. A very relaxed Ted, despite Lille suffering their first defeat. With a nine points over their nearest rivals, the target of promotion is still on course. In addition, for himself a degree of self-satisfaction with his performances which fit neatly into the game pman of coach Halihodzic. Updated 24th September ALSO THIS WEEKEND...Sunday 26th September at 3pm CET, at the Stadium on the Ile de Vannes at Saint-Ouen, in the French under 15's championship, Red Star 93 vs Montrouge.
Updated 23rd September CURTAIN RAISER. Red Star 93 will open the gates to Stade Marville at 4pm CET on Saturday for the big match against Valenciennes. This is because there will be the finals of a football competition for the kids of the housing estates. Get down early and give these kids a cheer !
Updated 21st September NO MORE COCK-UPS: The state of play after nine matches is far from convincing if Red Star seriously want to get back into D2. Updated 17th September TEN YEARS ON & BENJAMIN CLEMENT RETURNS TO RED STAR 93. Unemployed since the start of the season, Benjamin Clément has signed with Red Star following a period spent with the UNFP. Last Friday he was back at Stade Bauer, representing the UNFP against the national XI of Haiti. Updated 15th September HODOUTO. Kwami Hodouto, who played on loan at Red Star last season has signed with the English First Division club Huddersfield Town. Manager of the Yorkshire club is ex-Manchester United stalwart Steve Bruce. Updated 14th September RED STAR ON THE ROAD : ISTRES ISTRES - RED STAR 93 : 3-3 On April 1st 1994, coached by Pierre Repellini, Red Star 93 were hoping to continue their promotion push against bottom club Istres. However Istres were to be no pushover and Red Star narrowly escaped with a draw. Coach Repellinis' pre-match warnings of no easy matches came true. An interesting point to note is that Red Star holds the records for participating in both the biggest attendance for a D2 encounter (48 000 vs Saint-Etienne last season) and the smallest, one hundred paying spectators for this match .Captain and goalkeeper Gilles Bourges staved off potential defeat with two penalty stops, the first at the start and the second at five minutes from the final whistle. Stade Bardin (cap. 7400), route de Fox 13800 Istres (Tel. +33 4 42 56 40 27). ISTRES (Bouches-du-Rhône), pop. 35000, with an airforce base, not too far from Marseille, main industry is aeronautics.
Updated 9th September AT LAST - A PROGRAMME ! For the match Red Star 93 - Thouars, the supporters' club, les Amis du Red Star 93 are to distribute free of charge a four-page special edition with some statistics, fixtures National & Reserves and a presentation of the new Red Star 93. As per usual, it is down to the dedicated bunch of supporters to produce a programme, absolutely nothing coming from the official sources at the club.
Updated 6th September ANOTHER NKOTB (New Kid on the Block). Yao SENAHA, from Toulouse, born in Togo. Details to follow. Updated 2nd September NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK. From today, three players from Saint-Etienne have been loaned to Red Star 93 : Blaise Mamoum, Eric Obinna* & a midfielder who shall be named in the next few hours, although is predicted to be Bertrand Fayolles. *Eric Obinna turned out on five occasions last season with the first XI at Saint-Etienne. (for more info see Pen Pics 1999-2000).
The National clubs start the French Cup at the fifth round stage, normally the weekend of the 23rd & 24th October.
Clermont are newly promoted to the National, with the title of Champion de France de CFA.
Top scorer was Olivier Chavanon (ex-Bourges) with nineteen goals.
Clermont Foot followed in the footsteps of Clermont, who played in the D2 during the season 1988-89.
In 1997, Clermont reached the quarter finals of the cup after knocking out Paris Saint-Germain. This term, with a budget of 12MF (£1.2m) the Clermontois have set out their stall for the big time. Coached by René Le Lamer, ex-professionnel who played with FC Nantes (1965-69). After ten games, Clermont have two points more then Red Star.
Clermont was united with Montferrand in 1630. The town of Clermont-Ferrand is also noted for its Rugby Union club, last seasons' championship finalists as well as the Demoiselles de Clermont, who were basketball champions several times during the seventies.
Clermont-Ferrand, tyre capital is currently in the news due the decision of Michelin to sack several thousands of employees, despite making immense profits. Will Red Star deflate the Michelin Man ? Answer at the end of this week !
CLEMENT. On the down side two more points lost, but on the plus side the performance of Benjamin Clément, his perception and reading of the game was second to none and his experience could be vital in the forthcoming weeks.
RED CARDED. For the trip to Clermont another defensive reshuffle will be necessary folloing the suspension of Ludo Mary who taook an early bath against Valenciennes.
CFA 2. Bad news for the reserves, slumping 2-1 at Abbeville.
With eleven points from nine games and a gap of eight points to the third placed club, the start of the season could be classed as lamentable. Looking back at this time last season, the top four were :
1st Louhans (19 pts), 2nd Istres (19), 3rd Créteil (18), 4th GFCO Ajaccio (18). Istres plummeted away to finish thirteenth, so at the end of the day it looked like this:
Louhans (68 pts), Créteil (66 pts) & GFCO Ajaccio (65 pts). A good start is synonymous with promotion (except Lille & Sedan last year in D2). However, Racing did finish fourth, one point adrift of Ajaccio, but this time last year had eight points, three less than Red Star have now. Perhaps Red Star should draw some encouragement from their suburban neighbours...
Ten years after leaving Red Star and having scored thirteen gaols during the season 1988-89 in D3, Benjamin is back in a Red Star shirt. His career took him to Monaco, caoched by Arsène Wenger and reached the finals of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1992, lost 2-0 to Werder Bremen. In that team were Ettori, Valéry, Djorkaeff, Petit, Mendy, Sonor, Dib, Gnako, Passi, Rui Barros, Weah and Fofana. He later moved on to Sochaux, Laval before playing in Italy at San Remo. Originally a striker, Benjamin Clément plays now in defence. At Red Star 93, he will link up once more with ex-team mate Jean-Luc Girard.
MOULIN. According to Le Parisien, the new Managing Director of Red Star is to be 38-year old Michel Moulin, currently president of non-league club Ermont-Franconville in the Paris region.
SNIPPETS. Following his red card received on Saturday, his second of the season after the early bath against Beauvais, Morad El Othmani is now in the frame for a two match ban.
Aziz Bellissaoui and Laurent Delanoue are on the injury list again.
Last Friday at the Stade Bauer, an UNFP XI featuring three ex-Red Star players Joël André, Thomas Debenest and Benjamin Clément beat the Haiti national team 1-0.
Football Club d'Istres Ville Nouvelle.
Following a long spell in the second division, Istres is now one of the more established clubs in the National. At the start of each new season, Istres are in the frame for promotion and in 1997-98 ontained its highest ever position, fourth. The two sides have met six times and of the three away matches Istres have won one (4-0) against two draws (3-3 & 1-1). At Istres, currently fifth in the table with a match in hand (GFCO Ajaccio), Red Star 93 come up against an old boy, David Guion.
On the 7th March 1986, the Audoniens, coached by Roger Lemerre, 13th in the table shared the points with sixteenth placed Istres in a three-all draw.
Attendance : 1800; Referee : M. Dozol; Goals : Priou (14), Goupil (30), Picq (47) - Rached (47), Y. Belkebla (50), Boukada (86).
ISTRES: Simonella, Gautier, Francioli, Djefaflia, Folcher, Kerjean, Lafleur, Djennadi, Goupil (Monczuk 72ème), Picq, Priou. Coach : Coinçon.
RED STAR 93 : Lemasson, Aniol, Havet (Boukada 67ème), Besançon, Séguy, Mezache, Zehringer, Rached, Y. Belkebla, Leverrier, Pimond. Coach : Lemerre.
Samuel Michel opened Red Stars' account in the eigth minute but unable to capitalise let Istres back into the game with a 29th minute equaliser from Rossetti. This match was a watershed in the championship - if Red Star had won they would have been in the top three. However, following a draw with Le Mans the week after Red Star received a hammering at Nice (1-4) and hopes of promotion disappeared. Five years later and only Fabien Valéri remains from the class of '94, but Christophe Fiatte now coaches Red Star 3rd XI and Jean-Luc Girard is first team coach.
Istres : Beaufreton, Auniac, Desseaux, Grosbois, Hamed (Tolosano 46), Ambrosi, Paniagua, Boli, Ray, Meilley, Rossetti.
Red Star 93 : Bourges, Dorizon, Dostanic, Gunia, Fiatte, Mermet, Valéri, Guimard, Girard, Michel, Marlet (Thimothée 70).
FORET. Jean-Philippe FORET, goalie numéro uno has had his contract terminated by mutual agreement. Jean-Marc BRANGER now becomes first-choise 'twixt the sticks.
ROCH. Régis Roch is back in town, and takes up the position of goalkeeping coach.
POST-MATCH DEBRIEFING. Seconds after the end of the match at Raon, Friday, the team went through the post-match debriefing session on the pitch before getting back on the bus to go home. Rest day was programmed for Saturday before back into training Sunday morning.
APOLOGY. For some reason the translation service of this site went awry a couple of days ago. Thus the news of the 30th August was written in Franglais. This has now been corrected.
RAON. The team leave Friday lunch time for their trip to Saint-Dié their HQ for the match.