Ligue 1: Évian Thonon Gaillard FC - The French new boys

Many of you will not have heard of newly promoted French Ligue 1 side Évian Thonon Gaillard FC, who are making headline news after moving up from the fourth division to the top tier of French football over the last four years. Évian TG started their campaign in Ligue 1 yesterday with a 2-2 away draw against Stade Brest.

Évian Thonon Gaillard FC isn’t a club from a big city.  The club from the Rhone-Alpes area was originally based in Gaillard near the Swiss border and then moved to Thonon-les-Bains in 2007 as part of a merger between L’Olympique Croix de Savoie 74 and another local club L’Olympique Thonon-Chablais. In 2009 the President of the Danone Group, Franck Riboud, was made honorary president of the football club with the club’s name being changed to Évian Thonon Gaillard FC.

Interestingly, Evian is a well-known French water brand of the Danone Group and initially Franck Riboud also put in money to help the club move up into the top tier. Now the club is in Ligue 1 and will try to fight to stay in the top tier before potentially bigger things to come.

Évian TG’s biggest signing over the summer has been former Olympique Lyonnais player Sidney Govou from Panathinaikos Athens, while the others bring top level experience to the club.

Évian TG only have one big problem: the lack of a suitable stadium, as their home ground can only hold 2,000 spectators. The club considered shifting their home matches to their neighbouring town of Geneva, but that lies in Switzerland, so UEFA did not allow them this move. Hence they had to shift to the Parc des Sports in Annecy with a new stadium to be build along with an appropriate training complex for a top division club.