In 2017 the club was relegated to the Championnat National 3 due to financial irregularities and lost its professional licence. I Turchini regained professional status in 2021 following promotion to Ligue 2.
History
Genesis of the team and beginning of professional football
Sporting Club de Bastia in staff (1905)
Sporting Club de Bastia was founded in 1905 by a Swiss named Hans Ruesch. He taught German in high school in Bastia. The first president of Bastia was Emile Brandizi. The Corsican club celebrated its debut on the Place d'Armes of Bastia, in the light of a single gas burner.[5]
The club began its professional journey in 1965, in Division 2. After three successful seasons, it was crowned Champion of France's Second Division in 1968, joining the elite. The first season was difficult, but the club still maintained its place. Thus began a decade widely considered the finest in club history. In 1972, the club reached, for the first time, the final of the Coupe de France against Olympique de Marseille (losing 2–1), getting it its first qualification in the European Cup Winners' Cup, which led to elimination against the excellent team of Atlético Madrid.
UEFA Cup finalist in 1978 and Cup victory in France in 1981
The team eliminated successively Sporting Lisbon, Newcastle United, Torino, Carl Zeiss Jena and Grasshoppers Zurich before a final defeat to PSV Eindhoven (0–0, 0–3). Of all the victories, the 3–2 win in Turin made the most lasting impression, the "Toro" being undefeated for two seasons on their home pitch. It is also during this match that Bastia marks the best goal of that time, a volley from 22 meters by Jean-François Larios.
The final would, however, end with misfortune. First, with a first leg played at Furiani on an unplayable pitch,[7] heavy rain having fallen on Corsica on 26 April 1978. Unfortunately, the Yugoslav referee postponed the meeting because of the proximity to World Cup in Argentina that was scheduled a few weeks later. Despite Bastia's dominance, the meeting ended with a goalless draw, 0–0.
The final return, 9 May, lasted only 24 minutes. This is the time it took PSV Eindhoven to score the first goal, followed by two more late in the game (3–0). The townsfolk will attribute the defeat of Bastia to fatigue accumulated in the league (3 games in 6 days in the days before the final return) and also the rain-soaked pitch in the first leg at Furiani.
Bastia then realised the greatest moment in Corsican sport (see the movie Forza Bastia of Jacques Tati). The ECBC club, from a town of only 40,000 souls, had done more than challenge the major capitals of European football: it had allowed the whole of Corsica to meet, at a time when the nationalist movement was born, three years after the episode of Bastia, in 1975.
After 18 years in the elite, the club went down to the second division at the end of the 1985–86 season, and stayed for eight years. This era is marked by the catastrophe of Furiani: In the 1991–92 season, the club reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. The match was played at Stade Armand Cesari, or "Furiani Stadium", against Olympique de Marseille which dominated the Championship of France. The enthusiasm was such that was decided to hastily construct a temporary stand of 10,000 seats. The upper part of the platform collapsed a few minutes before kick-off killing 18 and injuring 2,300.[8]
Alex Song, made his professional debut in 2004 for Bastia.Michael Essien, made his professional debut in 2000 for Bastia.
Back in Ligue 1 and in the European Cup
The club returned to the elite for the 1994–95 season and that year reached the final of the League Cup. This era was marked by the work of Frédéric Antonetti, who coached the club between 1990 and 1994 and oversaw the development of new talents (Morlaye Soumah, Laurent Casanova, and Cyril Rool).
Antonetti coached the first team from 1994 to 2001 (with an interlude in 1998–99) and was involved in the recruitment of players such as Lubomir Moravcik, Pierre-Yves André, Frédéric Née, Franck Jurietti, and Anto Drobnjak, the latter of whom was the club's top scorer in his third season. At the end of the 1995–96 season, Drobnjak was also second in the Championship scoring charts with 20 goals, one goal behind top scorer Sonny Anderson.[9]
In the 1996–97 season the club finished in 7th place in Ligue 1, just 3 points off the top, thus qualifying for the Intertoto Cup. The club won the Intertoto Cup, and qualified for the UEFA Cup for the 1997–98 season. Bastia eliminated Benfica in the round of 32 before falling to Steaua Bucharest in the next round. This defeat left a bitter taste due to the domination Bastia had in both matches.[10] The performance of Bastia in the league in the following years allowed it to qualify two more times for the Intertoto Cup, in 1998 and 2001, but failed to re-qualify for the UEFA Cup.
After the departure of Antonetti in 2001, the club would not finish in the top ten again. They did reach the final of the Coupe de France in 2001–02; in their midfield was Michael Essien, who would go on to play for Lyon and Chelsea.[11] Another player groomed by Bastia was defenderAlex Song, who later played for Arsenal and Barcelona.[12]
In the winter break of the 2004–05 season, the club fell into the relegation zone. Bastia recruited Christian Karembeu, member of the 1998 World Cup-winning France team, but Bastia would still be relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of the season after 11 consecutive years in Ligue 1.
The Descent Below
In 2005, the club was relegated to Ligue 2. Five years later, Bastia was in serious danger of descent into the Championnat National. Bastia was officially relegated to the National on 7 May 2010, following a draw (0–0) with Tours at the 37th matchday of Ligue 2.[13]
Despite this disrupted pre-season, Bastia performed well in the transfer window, with no fewer than six rookies. As for departures, there is mainly the transfer of Florent Ghisolfi (Reims) and Christophe Gaffory (Vannes) as well as Pierre-Yves André who decided to end his career.[16]
Faruk Hadžibegić was fired from the managers' post after poor results, and the job then passed to Frédéric Hantz.[17] On 22 April 2011, Bastia officially earned its place in Ligue 2 after a game against Frejus-Saint Raphael.[18] No fewer than 500 townsfolk had made the trip. On 7 May 2011, Bastia become the National champion, following a victory over Créteil by 2 goals to one, with Bastia finishing with a record tally of 91 points and unbeaten at home throughout the campaign. Sporting was leading at the half, but equalised by David Suarez, then Idrissa Sylla allowed Bastia to take the lead in the 92nd minute in a crazy atmosphere.[19] At the end of the match, the pitch at Armand Cesari was invaded by Bastia fans, happy to celebrate with their players and their coach, Frédéric Hantz, this new title.
Jérôme Rothen won Ligue 2's best player award in 2011–12, the same season Bastia were named team of the year and earned promotion to Ligue 1.
Bastia, newly promoted from the National, welcomed Jérôme Rothen, Toifilou Maoulida, François Marque, Ludovic Genest and Florian Thauvin into the club.[20] Bastia started off on a good note, falling off slightly in the autumn. From early February until the beginning of April, Bastia did not lose a single match.[21] On 23 April 2012, in a full Stadium Armand Cesari, Bastia virtually secured their place amongst the elite by winning against Châteauroux (2–1).[22] On 1 May 2012, Bastia became champion of Ligue 2,[23] 44 years after its first and only league title, with their victory over Metz at Armand Cesari. On 11 May 2012, Bastia won its last game of the season at home 2–1 against Nantes thanks to goals from Jérôme Rothen and David Suarez.[24] The club was also on a 2-year run of being undefeated at home. Bastia became part of the very exclusive club of teams undefeated at home in Europe. Several players played their last game against Nantes in the colours of Bastia, including David Suarez and Jacques-Désiré Périatambée.
In the 2016–17 Ligue 1 season, after four seasons in the top division, Bastia finished bottom of the Ligue 1 table and were relegated to Ligue 2.
Sharp fall, financial troubles and slow climb back
On 22 June 2017, Bastia were relegated again to Championnat National after the DNCG had recommended a further demotion for the club. Bastia were the subject of an audit on their books which resulted in yet another demotion for failing to guarantee they had the finances to compete in Ligue 2. The DNCG released a statement on the same day stating “Following its audit today before the DNCG, Sporting Club Bastia has been given notice of a provisional relegation". In August 2017, Bastia were demoted again to the Championnat National 3 following further financial irregularities.[26][27]
The club gained promotion to the Championnat National 2 in the 2018–19 season,[28] and completed a back-to-back promotion in the 2019–20 season, by being top of the National 2 Group A table when the season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[29] Bastia achieved their third successive promotion after being assured of a top two finish in the 2020–21 Championnat National.[30]
Stade Armand Cesari, also known as Stade Furiani, is the main football stadium in Corsica. It is located in Furiani, and is used by SC Bastia. In 1992, the stadium hosted the semi-finals of the Coupe de France during which a temporary grandstand collapsed, killing 18 people and injuring nearly 3,000.[31]
Totally obsolete and even dangerous (barbed wire around the ground, dilapidated stands), the stadium hosted the 1978 UEFA Cup Final. The stadium's capacity was then less than 12,000 seats, in precarious conditions, heavy rain having fallen on Corsica that day, turning the ground into a quagmire, which handicapped the outcome of this decisive match (0–0).[31] The crowd of 15,000 spectators announced appears exaggerated, but given the fervor around Corsica for the game, many fans did not hesitate to stand up, packed tightly, to attend the game. The record attendance at the stadium was set on 1 September 2012, when 15,505 people saw Bastia lose against St. Etienne (0–3) in a league match.[31][32] Behind it the following record was set in 1978, when 15,000 people saw Bastia draw against PSV Eindhoven (0–0, 1978) in the UEFA Cup final matches.[31]
Colours and badge
For the 2011–12 season, the club decided to change the logo. This is the explanation; "1- Replacing the name "SCB". Spoken in the aisles of Armand Cesari since its inception. "Bastia" is the club of the city. 2- To recall the historic jersey from 1978, the shield has a moor's head, from the Testa Mora Flag. 3- It also reappeared as in the 70s and the heyday of the club. 4- The dominant color is blue. Always accompanied by white edging and black as official colours of the club since 1992."[33]
The fans have a rivalry with most mainland supporters, however, their most fierce rivals are Nice with whom they contest the Derby de la Mediterranée, although the derby can also refer to rivalries with Marseille and Monaco. They also have a rivalry with Parisian club PSG[37] due to political tensions between the capital and Corsica.
^Following this, the leaders of this blessed time decide to renew the following year in July and August 1979 the lawn of this legendary stadium, also with the study and installation of new drains that will remove this "swamp" which prevented the team to get a decent result in the decisive match.
