Football, bloody football

Things are not looking good.  After a brief display of attacking verve and defensive solidity in the 4-1 victory over Northampton, Barnet have reverted to type and indeed trademarked a pattern of play: look solid for an hour and lead 1-0, and then start screwing up at the back and leak a couple of soft goals.  A return to the Conference is surely beckoning.

But at least their future looks reasonably secure compared to that of Grenoble Foot.  Rock bottom of Ligue 2 and looking unlikely to save themselves on the pitch, matters might very well be pre-empted by the financial collapse of the club.  If reports in L’Equipe are to be believed, the DNACG, the financial governing body of the sport, has given the club’s owners until the end of next week to deposit €5 million in a blocked account as a guarantee of the club’s financial security.  Should this not happen, and noises are not positive, the adventure could well be over.

What would the future hold for football in Grenoble should GF go under?  A new club would certainly be formed, looking to exploit both the facilities (the Stade des Alpes is a magnificent stadium worthy of the top flight) and the potential fan-base.  But much would depend upon the level at which the new club would be placed in the pyramid.  Restart in CFA1 or CFA2 with decent resources and it would not be unreasonable to anticipate a climb back up to National or even L2 over a period of five to ten years, much as the reorganised GF managed in the second half of the 1990s.  A relaunch lower than that might struggle to build momentum, however.