Ground Capacity 15,660 Manager Romain Revelli Founded 1924 | Arena/Stadium Parc des Sports Annecy Location Thonon-les-Bains, France | |
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Full name Évian Thonon Gaillard Football Club Nickname(s) Les Croix de Savoie (The Savoy Crosses)
L'ETG
Évian
Les Roses (The Pinks) Dissolved 2016; 1 year ago (2016) Ground Parc des Sports,
Annecy, France 2015–16 Ligue 2, 18th (relegated) Parent organization SAS Haute-Savoie Football Développement Profiles | ||
Évian Thonon Gaillard Football Club ([evjɑ̃ tɔnɔ̃ ɡajaʁ]; commonly referred to as Evian TG or simply Evian) was a French association football club based in Thonon-les-Bains that was founded on 1 July 2007 and was dissolved on 7 December 2016.
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The original incarnation of the club was known as FC Gaillard and existed from 1924–2003. Gaillard achieved minimal honours in its life only winning the Division d'Honneur of the Rhône-Alpes region in 1999. Evian have proved more successful ascending to the professional divisions after just three seasons. The club won the Championnat de France amateur in 2008, the Championnat National in 2010, and finally the Ligue 2 in 2011.
Evian formerly played its home matches at the Stade Joseph-Moynat in the club's hometown, but moved to the Parc des Sports in nearby Annecy for the 2010–11 season as the Joseph-Moynat did not meet the Ligue de Football Professionnel's standards. The Parc des Sports will serve as a temporary stadium for the club, while the club contemplates building a new facility or renovating the Stade Joseph-Moynat. Prior to moving to its current facility, Evian sought to play at the Stade de Genève in nearby Geneva.
Until the 2013–14 season, the club's main sponsor was Groupe Danone, owner of the Evian brand of mineral water. Danone's CEO Franck Riboud was honorary president of the club.
At the end of the 2015–16 season, the club was relegated from Ligue 2, and further demoted by the DNCG to the Championnat de France Amateur, the fourth level of football in France. The club then entered receivership meaning that, even if it had survived, it would have suffered a further administrative relegation at the end of the 2016–17 season. The club withdrew from the competition on 9 August.
Football in Gaillard
In 2003 Football Croix-de-Savoie 74 was formed as a result of a merger between FC Gaillard and FC Ville-la-Grand. Gaillard was founded in 1924 and spent most of its life playing in the Ligue Rhône-Alpes, while Ville-la-Grand was founded in 1928. The new club finished 3rd in the Championnat de France amateur (CFA) Groupe B section for the 2003–04 season. Normally, only the top club in each of the four amateur groups are promoted to the Championnat National; however, both the 1st and 2nd placed clubs in the group were reserve sides of professional teams, namely Lyon and Metz. As such, Croix-de-Savoie was promoted. The club's first season in National saw them narrowly avoid relegation, finishing 14th out of 20, two points above relegated 17th place Besançon. The 2005–06 season was less successful; Croix-de-Savoie finished 18th with 41 points, one point behind SO Châtellerault, thus falling back to the fourth division. Croix-de-Savoie's average attendance also dropped from 933 to 716.
The foundation
In 2007, a merger between Croix-de-Savoie 74 and Olympique Thonon-Chablais created Olympique Croix-de-Savoie 74. Whilst the former club had been heavily associated with the commune of Gaillard, the new club moved to the nearby commune of Thonon-les-Bains because the stadium in Gaillard was, in August 2005, deemed unfit for use in the National division. The decision resulted in club being forced to move to Stade Joseph-Moynat in Thonon, a facility with 2,700 seats and a total capacity of 6,000. The club returned to the Championnat National as the CFA Group B winners (with a record 108 points) for the 2008–09 season. In the summer of 2009, the president of the Groupe Danone, Franck Riboud, was made honorary president of the football club. Riboud yet again changed the name of the team to Evian Thonon Gaillard Football Club. He also put money into the team to improve the youth system of the club and harboured aspirations of the side achieving promotion to Ligue 2. On 16 April 2010, the club completed the feat in Riboud's first season presiding over the club achieving promotion to Ligue 2, for the first time, following its 1–0 victory over Amiens.
After earning promotion to Ligue 2 for the 2010–11 season, Evian were rumoured to be pursuing a move to play its home matches at the Stade de la Praille in Geneva, Switzerland after it was determined that the club's current facility, the Stade Joseph-Moynat, did not meet the Ligue de Football Professionnel's (LFP) standards. Thonon-les-Bains, the commune where the club situates itself, is a few kilometres from the Swiss border and is only 34.6 kilometres (21.5 mi), a 45-minute car drive, from the city of Geneva. It was reported that the club's president, Patrick Trotignon, had been in the process of advocating for the move since the beginning of the 2009–10 Championnat National season just in case the club had achieved promotion to the second division. The vice-president of Swiss club Servette FC, who occupy the stadium, questioned the move citing possible schedule conflicts, as well as the health of the pitch if both clubs were to use the stadium on a weekly basis. However, his claims were refuted by Benoît Genecand, president of Fondation du Stade de Genève (FSG), which owned and operated the facility. The club responded immediately to Genecand's comments via a press release posted on the club's official website. Evian petitioned to the State Council of Geneva and obtained approval from the LFP for the move in early May. On 20 May 2010, Evian received a favourable ruling from the French Football Federation (FFF) with the Federal Council voting in favour of the move. According to the federation, the move now had to be agreed upon by a UEFA executive committee. On 8 June, UEFA officially denied Evian's request to play at the Stade de la Praille meaning the club would play its home matches at the Parc des Sports in nearby Annecy.
On 9 January 2011, Evian recorded an upset victory over the defending French champions Olympique de Marseille in the Coupe de France. The team defeated the Ligue 1 club 3–1 in the Round of 64. Strong form throughout the season saw Evian secure a second successive promotion as champions of Ligue 2.
In their first season in Ligue 1 Les Roses finished in a respectable ninth place. The following season, Evian finished in sixteenth position, avoiding relegation by just two points. They also reached the Coupe de France final for the first time in the club's history, where they were beaten 3–2 by Bordeaux, falling victim to a last-minute winner by Cheick Diabaté.
Relegation and dissolution
At the end of the 2015–16 Ligue 2 season, the club finished in the relegation places. The club were further relegated by the DNCG, after appeal, and were placed in the Championnat de France Amateur for the following season. On 2 August 2016 the club were placed in receivership, and given a probationary period of two months to be saved. This will mean a further administrative relegation at the end of the 2016–17 season, should the club survive.
On 9 August, the FFF confirmed the decision by the club not to participate in the CFA following their recent receivership.
On 7 December 2016, the club was dissolved and replaced by Evian Savoie Football Club.