Founded : 1904
President : Gilles Saulnier
Stadium : Léo Lagrange, avenue Léo Lagrange, 25000 Besançon (tel. +33 3 81 88 42 18) – capacity 7 500
Colours : Red / blue
Last season : 8th (56 points)
Current poisition (23 games): 15th, (24 points)
Coach : Sylvain Matrisciano. Player with Besançon, Lille, Besançon, Nancy & Valenciennes. Coach with BRC since 1997

The game earlier in the season at Marville against Besançon remains one of the few happy memories of this awful season. The game ended in a 4-1 win for the home side. Since then only Thouars have lost to Red Star, and the vistory againt the Bisontins goes back to the 6th September 2000. At that time, the charges of Sylvain Matrisciano were not at their best, and were suffering from a poor start to the season, in contrast to the start of last season, where they set off like a rocket, and were top dogs for a considerable part of the season. The first eight games produce seven victories for the then newly promoted outfit.
After 23 games, the goalless draw at Pau last weekend kept Besançon out of the bottom four. A home win on Friday will plunge Red Star deeper into the mire and will allow Besançon to distance themselves from their rivals by thirteen points with fourteen games remaining.

Red Star will return to a ground which has changed since last season, 7 500 places all-seated, and the plan is to raise the capacity to 13 000 with further improvements. For this reason Besançon wish to keep their place in the National before aiming higher. They did play in the D2 for forty one seasons until 1986 when they went into liquidation. Their failure had the effect of saving Red Star from relegation.
Former Red Star player currently plying his trade with Besançon is Cédric Lestic (photo).
Besançon lined up at Pau with the following :
Cappone, Spielmann, Palumbo, Tournoux, Renou, Maître, A. Faivre, V. Faivre Marchandé, Bizot, Perrot. Subs : Amiotte, Soltani, M'Banza.
At home their record is : P 11 W 4 D 5 L 2 F 15 A 12.

FROM THE ARCHIVES