How Chelsea’s game of chess sparked a civil war at ‘feeder club’ Strasbourg | OneFootball

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.

The stewardship of Marc Keller, a former France international and one of Alsace’s own, was integral to the club’s rebuild in the 2010s. But instead of being revered, Keller is ridiculed - considered the instigator of Strasbourg’s toxification. His sale to Chelsea owners BlueCo in June 2023 has obliterated any previous goodwill. To the fans, he signed away the club’s soul.

This deterioration was not instantaneous. Keller had actually approached the fans when he decided to sell up. “We said there are only two things that we don’t want,” Alexandre, spokesperson for Strasbourg’s four main supporter groups, who asks for his surname not to be used, detailed to The Independent. “First of all, we don’t want an LBO (leveraged buyout), like the Glazers at Manchester United. The second thing is multi-club ownership. We don’t want to be part of a network of clubs. He said ‘fine’, took our opinion and then obviously did what he did, which was sell to BlueCo.”

False promises landed at the feet of ultras upon the takeover, ones for the sake of their club they wanted to believe. Keller, remaining in charge of the club in a presidential role, apparently assured that “Chelsea and Strasbourg would be separate entities, with the only common point of having the same major stakeholder”. It was also claimed that BlueCo, namely Clearlake founder Behdad Eghbahli, was “very eager” to meet with the core supporter unions.

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Fan perception of Marc Keller (centre) has soured at Strasbourg (AFP via Getty Images)

But as the months ticked on, the reality of Strasbourg’s new purpose became clear. “We are being used as a pawn in the big game of Clearlake and Chelsea,” Alexandre asserts, after two-and-a-half years, is still waiting for that meeting with Eghbahli.

Since BlueCo took the reins, 11 players have bounced between Chelsea - the crown jewel of their portfolio - and Strasbourg. That will rise to 12 (at least) next summer. The formula sees mostly youngsters with high ceilings brought to the Meinau to develop before being shipped off to Stamford Bridge. Alexandre draws similarities between this and how NBA teams operate with their G League counterparts.

This injection of exquisite teenage talent has both impacted the starting XI’s average age - now the youngest in Europe’s big-five leagues at just 20.86 years old - as well as performance. Strasbourg have gone from perpetual relegation candidates to European contenders, this season plying their trade in the Conference League under Liam Rosenior, the former Brighton, Hull and Fulham defender turned manager, who himself is on an upward trajectory. So what’s the problem?

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Liam Rosenior has helped guide Strasbourg to new heights on the pitch (AFP via Getty Images)

Firstly, no amount of success can justify the perceived erosion of identity, at least not at Strasbourg. “We have this culture where the region is very closely intertwined with the club’s identity, and that’s not common in France,” Alexandre explains, noting that his mother, while “not giving a s*** about football”, considers Strasbourg as part of her being. So to see the club become “a B team, a feeder team, a farm team” to Chelsea, as Alexandre puts it, is unacceptable.

The multi-club dynamic has also seen Strasbourg toyed with by BlueCo on the transfer front. Cobham product Ishe Samuels-Smith joined Le Racing from Chelsea on a permanent deal this summer before returning to Stamford Bridge and then being sent out on loan to Swansea City - all in the space of 34 days. Ben Chilwell, meanwhile, was sent to the Meinau after the frozen-out left-back had no other suitors. He hardly fits the mould at Strasbourg, but that doesn’t matter - he needed a new club and this was the easiest solution. “It shows it’s actually Chelsea making all the decisions at Strasbourg,” Alexandre laments.

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Ex-Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell in action for Strasbourg, with a banner reading ‘Non a la multipropriete’ (’No to multi-ownership’) unfurled behind him (Icon Sport via Getty Images)

Their outgoings are affected too, with Strasbourg’s direct channel to Chelsea often limiting the ability to drive competitiveness in the market. Under the Premier League's rules, any transfers between clubs in the same ownership group need to be assessed by the league first to ensure they represent 'fair market value'. And while Chelsea have abided by this regulation every time they have dipped into Strasbourg’s talent pool, there is such a thing as driving up a price - something Strasbourg can’t do when Chelsea have first dibs.

“The whole system is detrimental to Strasbourg’s interests,” says Alexandre, who cites June’s £12m sale of Mamadou Sarr as one where supporters of the French club felt shortchanged by Chelsea. “He had a very decent season and attracted interest from many clubs in England, Germany and Italy. In the ancient world, we would have had the choice over which club we were going to sell to, and there would have been some kind of competition. But we are in a closed circuit, so we have no choice - we have to sell (to Chelsea).”

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Chelsea signed Mamadou Sarr from Strasbourg in the summer (Getty Images)

Yet it was after the summer transfer deadline when the biggest sin was committed. That 12th transaction between the two clubs refers to 22-year-old striker Emanuel Emegha, Strasbourg’s skipper, who has notched 22 Ligue 1 goals across the past two campaigns. Just 11 days after the window slammed shut, it was announced Chelsea would be signing Emegha from next summer. The Dutchman was “paraded around Cobham” in a Chelsea shirt then and there, a decision that the Strasbourg faithful took as an almighty disrespect. “I’m guessing every English fan would react the way we did if you saw your captain wearing another club’s jersey three games into the season,” Alexandre says. “It just doesn’t go. This was unbearable for us.”

The debacle resulted in fan fury reaching a tipping point. Supporter protest has long been a fixture of a Meinau matchday, with fans in the main stand staying silent for the first 15 minutes of every home game in an objection to BlueCo - that’s been the case since their takeover and will continue indefinitely. However, the Emegha incident stoked the fire. Against Le Havre on 14 September, banners were unfurled calling for the Dutchman to have his armband stripped and for Keller to resign.

Strasbourg’s upper brass showed resistance in response. Rosenior resorted to lambasting the fans in defence of his captain, who was “devastated” at being branded “a pawn of BlueCo”. Keller then imposed sanctions on the fan organisations, requiring the content of all future banners and tifos to be approved by the club ahead of time. But even with these extra measures, anti-establishment banners have since been forcefully torn down by Strasbourg security, as was the case during their most recent victory outing against Angers. “This is no longer an issue of multi-club ownership; this is no longer an issue of being used as a B team,” Alexandre states. “This is an issue of freedom of speech.”

While BlueCo are the overarching enemy to a significant section of the supporters, Strasbourg’s ultras now find themselves trying to stage a mutiny inside their own club. Their justification is a belief that under their current ownership, defended by the board, Strasbourg are at “real risk of disappearing in the next 10-15 years”. That’s despite the fact they managed to spend €110m last summer in a league crippled by financial decay.

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There is a fear that Strasbourg could crash with BlueCo at the wheel (Getty Images)

“Is it our money that we are spending, the money we get from club revenue, or is it someone else’s money? The answer is very clear: we’re spending someone else’s money,” Alexandre says, outlining the caveat to Strasbourg’s newfound monetary might. “We live under financial support, and if they seize this financial support, then the club is bankrupt in two months.”

For the ultras, there could be a saving grace, even if it only lasts momentarily. Their push for Champions League theoretically means Strasbourg might get a season-long reprieve from BlueCo, presuming Chelsea also qualify for Europe’s premier competition next term. That’s because, in line with Uefa’s multi-club ownership regulations, Strasbourg would be expected to move into a ‘blind trust’, removing any conflicts such as board members working across the two clubs. It would also bar Chelsea and Strasbourg from making transfers of any kind between them. “At least we would get back this idea that there was in 2023 of having some kind of world between two identities,” Alexandre fantasises.

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Strasbourg’s European ventures could, in theory lead to a temporary reprieve from BlueCo’s influence due to Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules (REUTERS)

For now, though, a civil war is brewing at the Meinau, one that has Alsace-natives wishing their football club was situated on the German side of the Rhine. There, the 50+1 ownership rule, which prohibits outside investors from becoming majority stakeholders, reigns supreme.

Instead, Strasbourg’s fan unions are left in a stalemate as they try to find common ground with BlueCo. The final question posed to Alexandre was whether he and the supporter organisations were any closer to meeting with Egbhali. The answer? “No.”