The meeting of the round of 16 of the French football cup will not be played in Bergerac but in Périgueux, at the Francis Rongiéras stadium. In question, a question of gauge. With the sanitary measures and the distancing imposed from one seat out of two, if the match had taken place at Gaston Simounet in Bergerac, less than 700 supporters could have been welcomed, counting the many places reserved by invitations for the French Football Federation. . A hypothesis “totally unrealistic” declares the Bergerac Périgord Football Club.
“The important thing was to stay in Périgord”
The match will therefore take place in Périgueux, still in the Dordogne, in the Francis Rongiéras stadium.. It could also have been played in Bordeaux, Brive or Limoges. But Chaban-Delmas had a Union Bordeaux-Bègles match the day before, and didn’t seem very motivated. Limoges? Too far for the Bergeracois, more oriented towards the Gironde and the Lot-et-Garonne. “The important thing is not the rivalry between Périgueux and Bergerac, it was to stay in Périgord”, slice Paul Fauvel, the director of the BPFC.
The important thing is not the rivalry between Périgueux and Bergerac, it was to stay in Périgord
– Paul Fauvel
The memory of the round of 16 lost in 2017 against Libourne, outside Perigord lands, also has something to do with it: “In Chaban, with the gauge, it would have sounded empty”. The match is scheduled for Sunday January 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Stade Francis Rongiéras, a date imposed by the television broadcast schedule, on Eurosport 2. CAP is playing against Drancy that weekend. The Périgord rugby club has agreed to play the day before, on Saturday, or postpone its match to another date.
Between 3,300 and 4,000 places on sale
Francis Rongiéras is 10,000 places in normal times. Sanitary measures have already reduced the gauge to a maximum of 5,000 seats, in seats. The regulations may still change by the end of the month. But that leaves, after cutting off the invitations, “between 3,300 and 4,000 places” paying for supporters. The Saint-Etienne ultras should be banned from traveling, but Saint-Etienne supporters will still be able to fill the stands.
The lawn ? It’s a lawn… Perigord
-Paul Maso
The ticket office is not yet open, it should be at the latest fifteen days before the meeting, but the Bergerac club announces that the sale will be made in priority to Bergerac supporters who have been following the club for a long time. The places will be on sale in person and not on the internet, in the supermarkets of Bergerac at first, then in the rest of the Dordogne. The club also wishes to organize with the urban community of Bergerac to organize transport between Bergerac and Périgueux for the match.
The first eighth in Périgueux since… 1987
The municipality of Périgueux is obviously “Nice to meet you” to host the meeting, rejoices Paul Maso, the city’s sports assistant. The lawn of Francis Rongiéras? “It’s a Périgord lawn”, smiles the chosen one, who still boasts of his very good condition and is annoyed by the comments of Ligue 1 clubs who criticize the grounds of amateur clubs “to justify their defeat when they lost”. The town hall should obtain the approval of the field by the French Football Federation to host the meeting, subject to carrying out development work to host a meeting of this level.