For CL hit against Sturm

“Vegetable Baron” pays high price at arch-enemy

The arch-rivals as alternative home! The old Francis-Le Blé stadium in Brest (left) does not meet UEFA requirements, so the premiere of the Premier League will take place in Guingamp (right), around 110 km away.

(Bild: EA Guingamp, Ilona Perrot)

Because its own stadium resembles a hovel, Brest has to move to Guingamp for its home games. Club boss Le Saint made France's small club big.

The video went viral. A young man sits in his apartment with a pizza and blanket on the windowsill, watching a match in the stadium ...

But Brest cannot play at home in its first Champions League appearance because the old Stade Francis-Le Blé does not meet UEFA criteria for 15,000 fans.

Warning of incidents
As a result, the sensational third-placed team from the last Ligue 1 season will play Sturm tomorrow at Guingamp, around 110 kilometers away. In other words, to their arch-rivals in the second division. "It's a shame that the Stade Le Blé was not approved. The Guingamp fans are also very angry - there could be incidents," says David Aiello, Brest insider at France's sports bible L'Équipe. And Ilona Perrot from the tourism agency Atout France in Vienna knows from her visit home to Brittany: "The people in Guingamp are anti-Brest, as if Austria were playing at Rapid or vice versa. It's a high price to pay!" In sporting terms, however, it's a fairytale for the club on the Atlantic coast, once "the end of the world" for the Romans.

Stade Brestois 29 (the number stands for the department) was long regarded as an elevator team between the first and second divisions. Then in 2016, Denis Le Saint, not a sheikh or oligarch, but a "vegetable baron" took over - and celebrated the club's greatest success with coach Eric Roy in May, finishing third. The balanced collective was striking, with Romain Del Castillo becoming the internal top scorer with just eight goals. The resources are limited: While record champions Paris Saint-Germain have a budget of around 700 million euros thanks to a shower of sheikh money, Brest only have 50 million. "SB has been a family club ever since my dad used to go to the stadium with my grandad," says Perrot from the city of 140,000 inhabitants with its military port, Napoleon ship and city cable car. "The people are gruff, but very warm. Now, of course, everyone is delighted. To be in the European Cup for the first time ever is a huge success. Although it will be difficult."

Bumpy start to the league
Also because key players were poached in the summer, including winger Jérémy Le Douaron from Italian second division (!) side Palermo. "They stole our players," the fans complain. And the worries in Brest, where former Austrian team striker Adi Grbic was once an issue, have not diminished of late. Saturday's 3:1 defeat at PSG in the league was the third defeat in the fourth game. "But from now on," says Aiello, "the big adventure begins for the club."