When Strasbourg were left bankrupt and demoted to the amateur fifth tier of French football in 2011, they were a club in crisis. Strasbourg are now vying for the Champions League. Again, they are a club in crisis.
At the epicentre of Alsace, a fiercely proud region on the French-German border, there is the sinking feeling that an identity is being lost – extracted from a football club that for so long has galvanised the masses like few manage in France. A string of alleged “deception and lies” has turned Strasbourg into an entity no longer recognised by a vocal contingent of its own people.
