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Sport

Fallen French giants Bordeaux sold to US fund Park Bench for one euro

Bordeaux have been bought by US-based investment fund Park Bench for a symbolic €1, with the new owners assuming debts close to €18 million.

By Tom Ellery · · 1 min read

Interior of Bordeaux's Stade Atlantique during a match, with the packed Virage Sud stand and Matmut advertising boards visible
Photo: Fantafluflu (CC BY-SA 4.0), via football-stadiums.co.uk; original on Wikimedia Commons

Girondins de Bordeaux have been sold to US-based investment fund Park Bench for a symbolic €1, the club announced on Wednesday, as the fallen French giants prepare to begin life in the sixth tier of French football.

The deal will see owner Gerard Lopez exit after a five-year spell during which the 2008–09 Ligue 1 champions tumbled from the top flight to Regional 1, the sixth tier, where they will now attempt to start their season.

“This operation (sale) is concluded for a symbolic euro with the assumption of debts,” Bordeaux said in a statement, calling it “a major step for the future” of the club. The debts Park Bench will assume are close to €18 million, according to French media outlet Ici.

Park Bench, a data analytics and software company with an investment portfolio owned by American Evan Sofer and Briton James Bord, already holds shares in Spanish second-division side Cordoba and is the majority shareholder of Scottish Championship club Dunfermline Athletic.

Bordeaux have twice been placed into administration since 2021. Relegations enforced by the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) left them in the Championnat National 1 for the last two seasons; further financial trouble this year saw the DNCG relegate them again, to Regional 1.

The sale still needs approval from the Regional Management Control Commission of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Football League and from the Bordeaux Commercial Court, which must sign off the plan if Bordeaux are to avoid liquidation.

Sources

More on this topic: all Sport stories

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