When Idriss Ech-Chergui, a journeyman midfielder for the tiny French village football team of Luzenac, scored a 72nd minute winner in a match against Boulogne in April, it seemed like one of football’s greatest fairytales had just been realised, reports FRANCE 24.
The 1-0 victory meant that Luzenac, a town of just 650 people nestled in the Pyrenees, was set for promotion from the third division, the National, into the second-tier Ligue 2, where it would compete with comparative football giants from some of France’s biggest towns and cities.
But what should have been one of the biggest feel-good stories in European football for decades came to a cruel end Wednesday when Luzenac was banished back to the wilderness of the amateur leagues or, in the words of the club’s managing director, the French World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, a “descent into hell”.
After being barred from entering Ligue 2, first over its financial situation and then concerns about its stadium, Luzenac had sought to re-enter the National for the 2014-15 season.
Instead the French Football Federation (FFF) proposed they play in the CFA 2, the fifth tier of French football.
It was an offer the club could only refuse, a dejected sounding Barthez explained Wednesday, and Luzenac, in its current form, will cease to exist.
"You need to know when to say 'stop', when you can no longer fight. We can no longer fight," he said.
The Luzenac name will live on, but will now compete in the DHR (Division d'honneur regionale), the amateur seventh division, with the first team players all being released and the second team taking their place.
It is difficult to overstate the achievement represented by Luzenac’s remarkable journey to the gates of Ligue 2. As recently as 2000, the club had been playing in the sixth tier of French football in the regional Midi-Pyrénées league.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.