Saint-Etienne and Bordeaux have won a combined 16 French league titles, but two of French football’s most successful clubs find themselves rooted in a deep malaise and facing the grim prospect of relegation this season.
Beset by financial difficulties aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic and accusations of mismanagement, Saint-Etienne and Bordeaux occupy the bottom two spots in Ligue 1 with just five wins between them.
French champions a record 10 times, Saint-Etienne’s dominance of the 1960s and 1970s is a distant memory. Les Verts also reached the 1976 European Cup final but a financial scandal sent the club into free-fall in the 1980s.
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