Arles-Avignon’s debut season in Ligue 1 has been something of a disaster to date and a recent 5-0 drubbing at Lyon came as little surprise to the club’s faithful. 14 points adrift with 12 games remaining, the team from the Rhone have just 11 points to their name, which includes only one win, achieved in a 3-2 victory over Caen at the start of November.
Bottom of the league from as early as week two, Les Lions have sat there ever since, and only picked up their first point in the middle of October. That Arles’ top scorer is Franck Djedje, with four goals, whilst the nomadic former Arsenal forward Kaba Diawara is second with a grand total of two strikes to his name, goes some way towards summing up a thoroughly forgettable campaign.
Arles’ season was already threatening to go wrong before a ball was even kicked in anger. Jean-Marc Conrad, the club president, offered coach Michel Estevan a contract which the side could not afford, and was fired as a result. Conrad was replaced by Francois Perrot and Marcel Salemo, who then promptly relieved Estevan of his duties, which was a remarkable decision given that the 49-year-old had guided the provincial outfit to four promotions in five seasons. After much pressure, the duo relented and re-hired Estevan before the season had begun, but the damage was done and Arles endured a nightmare start to life in the top flight.
Predictably, the Frenchman was then sacked, for good this time, and replaced by the Bosnian Faruk Hadzibegic. His priority was to solidify a porous defence, and give the club some stability at the back that they could then build a team around. After nine successive defeats, Hadzibegic led Arles to their first point of the season in a 0-0 draw with Brest on 16th October, which was promptly added to a week later courtesy of a 1-1 draw at home to Lyon.
Having then lost 2-0 at Lorient, Les Lions beat Caen and picked up a point at struggling Monaco as they threatened to put together a respectable run of form, losing just once in five games. Unfortunately for Hadzibegic, Arles had also just started a period of 13 games without victory, which still has not come to an end. Their fortunes have been no better in either domestic cup, with the side falling at home to Caen in September in the League Cup and then losing on penalties to Sedan at the first hurdle in the French Cup.
Yet to view Arles through the prism of their shambolic displays this season would be unfair, as this is a team that has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the leagues, and whose budget is tiny compared to their rivals in the top flight. And for a side who hail from the town of Avignon, with a population of just 60,000, more famous for its Roman monuments and a picturesque landscape than its footballing achievements, their rise through France’s football pyramid is a remarkable story.
Arles hired Estevan in 2005, and the former midfielder, who spent his playing career drifting through France’s lower leagues, had an instant impact, winning promotion with the team in his first two seasons at the helm, before their charge was temporarily halted in 2008 with an eighth placed finish in the National (France’s third tier). The stumble did not last long however, as the coach guided Arles to a third place finish in 2009, which was good enough to see them promoted to Ligue 2. Estevan has an uncanny ability to pluck out players whose careers are on the wane and rejuvenate them. And his sides are good to watch too, with the coach playing an expansive game.
In gaining promotion, Arles had only overcome the first of the obstacles they would face in their hopes of competing in professional French football. Primarily, their Stade Fernand Fournier home had a capacity of just 2,000, which was insufficient for a professional club in Ligue 2. Therefore, Les Lions agreed to share with nearby Avignon 84, whose Parc des Sports could hold 7,000 spectators. This was the trigger for a name change too, with Arles taking Avignon’s name and changing their club crest. Even then however, the DNCG, French football’s financial regulator, threw the side out of Ligue 2 because their finances were too unstable, though Arles won an appeal against the ruling (as most clubs do) and were allowed to compete in the country’s second tier.
Their performances in Ligue 2 were stunning, with the side storming into third place on the last day of the season with a dramatic win against Clermont. It was a result which won promotion to the top tier of the French football ladder and represented a triumph against the odds.
So the club’s performances this season in Ligue 1 should be no shock, given the obscurity from which they have emerged and the fact that their traditional position in the French football hierarchy is somewhere just below Ligue 2, not to mention the instability which has ensued since Conrad was forced out of the club in July. Arles’ spirit has not been diminished by the lack of tangible reward on the pitch though, having been beaten by the odd goal more often than being thrashed. Indeed, the loss to Lyon was no disgrace and as many an established Ligue 1 side return from the Stade Gerland with pockets flopped out of their trousers completely empty.
Les Lions may yet win another game or two, but there seems little doubt that Arles-Avignon will be returning to the French second tier come the end of the 2010/11 campaign. For an outfit who have come so far in such a short period though, being in Ligue 1 at all is a remarkable victory in itself.
