How Peugeot powered Sochaux and helped professionalise French football | OneFootball

Peugeot is set to reunite with FC Sochaux-Montbéliard 11 years after selling the club, via a five-year shirt sponsorship. According to L'Équipe, the logo is due to return from the next home match, Friday 13 March against Concarneau, with Sochaux joint-leaders of National and dreaming of Ligue 2 this summer.

The deal rekindles a bond that began in 1928, when Jean-Pierre Peugeot founded the club three years before professionalism. His aim was brand promotion and, in paternalist fashion, social peace through sport.

As the company embraced mass production late in the decade, output and the local workforce surged, and Peugeot set about building a star side. He tasked Roger Dargein to test the plan, then made him sporting director, and hired the exacting Scot Victor Gibson.

Recruits arrived from England, Switzerland and central Europe, alongside French talents such as goalkeeper Antonio Lozes. Four future France internationals, Étienne Mattler, André Maschinot and brothers Jean and Lucien Laurent, travelled to the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay.

Sochaux toured before a national league existed, drawing crowds and acting as company ambassadors. Players were paid openly, often three to four times a skilled factory wage, a sharp break from covert expenses elsewhere.

Peugeot’s drive helped shift the debate towards professionalism. Professional player status was adopted on 13 June 1931, then on 16 January 1932 the professional club statute passed by 106 votes to 49, with 4 abstentions. The first league matches followed on 11 September, Sochaux losing 2-3 to CA Paris.

Source: L'Équipe