Rennes v Nantes: Piverdière advances while Jonelière lags on infrastructure | OneFootball

Derby day in the West arrives at 17:15 on Sunday with Rennes chasing Europe, possibly the Champions League, and eight-time champions Nantes hovering near L2. According to L'Équipe, it also spotlights two famed academies moving at very different speeds off the pitch.

In Rennes, the Piverdière 2 project, a 40 M€ Pinault-funded upgrade, marks a major shift for the academy, which will adjoin the first-team base from next summer. Trainees will no longer commute from Roazhon Park to reach training.

The new boarding house with 26 rooms and 41 beds is up, with a 4,000 m2 sports building to complete. Four hybrid pitches plus one synthetic are planned, and facilities mirror the pros on a smaller scale, with classrooms, a 200 m2 gym, hydrotherapy, and dining and admin areas.

Academy work underpins Rennes philosophically and financially, with about 100 M€ raised this year through Jérémy Jacquet’s move to Liverpool and Kader Meïté’s to Al-Hilal. The Gambardella holders lost Saturday’s semi-final to Montpellier before 8,945 at Roazhon Park, could still target the Challenge Espoirs on 2 May against OM, and the N3 reserves are fighting to stay up.

Nantes’ Jonelière has barely changed since 1978. The riverside site on the Erdre near the city centre is prized for its setting and schooling, and youth and women’s sides are thriving, with U17 and U19 in finals and the reserves and Gambardella teams in the last four.

But the infrastructure shows its age, with asbestos flagged in a warm-up room, poor pitches including one often unusable, and too few surfaces for the women, plus a stretched canteen and ventilation issues. Heritage protections hinder upgrades, relations with the city are cool though talks continue and a solution is expected for the women at La Roseraie, while staff maintain the environment remains pleasant and aim to keep pushing their neighbours.

Source: L'Équipe