SC Bastia

Genesis of the team and beginning of professional football

Sporting Club de Bastia was founded in 1905 by a Swiss named Hans Ruesch. He taught German in high school in Bastia. The first president of Bastia was Emile Brandizi. The Corsican club celebrated its debut on the Place d'Armes of Bastia, in the light of a single gas burner.

The club began its professional journey in 1965, in Division 2. After three successful seasons, it was crowned Champion of France's Second Division in 1968, joining the elite. The first season was difficult, but the club still maintained its place. Thus began a decade widely considered the finest in club history. In 1972, the club reached, for the first time, the final of the Coupe de France against Olympique de Marseille (losing 2–1), getting it its first qualification in the European Cup Winners' Cup, which led to elimination against the excellent team of Atlético Madrid.

UEFA Cup finalist in 1978 and Cup victory in France in 1981

In 1977, Bastia finished third in the Division 1 with the best offence in the league, with magnificent Dragan Džajić as a left winger and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

This is the beginning of the team built around playmaker Claude Papi, which was composed of many talented players such as Johnny Rep of the Netherlands; Jean-François Larios, a midfielder and French international; and Charles Orlanducci, the solid libero nicknamed the "Lion of Vescovato".

The team eliminated successively Sporting Lisbon, Newcastle United, Torino, Carl Zeiss Jena and Grasshoppers Zurich before a final defeat to PSV Eindhoven (0–0, 0–3). Of all the victories, the 3–2 win in Turin made the most lasting impression, the "Toro" being undefeated for two seasons on their home pitch. It is also during this match that Bastia marks the best goal of that time, a volley from 22 meters by Jean-François Larios.

The final would, however, end with misfortune. First, with a first leg played at Furiani on an unplayable pitch, heavy rain having fallen on Corsica on 26 April 1978. Unfortunately, the Yugoslav referee postponed the meeting because of the proximity to World Cup in Argentina that was scheduled a few weeks later. Despite Bastia's dominance, the meeting ended with a goalless draw, 0–0. The final return, 9 May, lasted only 24 minutes. This is the time it took PSV Eindhoven to score the first goal, followed by two more late in the game (3–0). The townsfolk will attribute the defeat of Bastia to fatigue accumulated in the league (3 games in 6 days in the days before the final return) and also the rain-soaked pitch in the first leg at Furiani.

Bastia then realised the greatest moment in Corsican sport (see the movie Forza Bastia of Jacques Tati). The ECBC club, from a town of only 40,000 souls, had done more than challenge the major capitals of European football: it had allowed the whole of Corsica to meet, at a time when the nationalist movement was born, three years after the episode of Bastia, in 1975.

Three years after that final, the Bastia won its first trophy with the Coupe de France 1980–81. This was a prestigious victory for the Corsican club facing St. Etienne of Michel Platini. The final was played at Parc des Princes in front of more than 46,000 spectators, including the newly elected President of the Republic, François Mitterrand.

Descent in Division 2 and Furiani disaster

After 18 years in the elite, the club went down to the second division at the end of the 1985–86 season, and stayed for eight years. This era is marked by the catastrophe of Furiani: In the 1991–92 season, the club reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. The match was played at Stade Armand Cesari, or "Furiani Stadium", against Olympique de Marseille which dominated the Championship of France. The enthusiasm was such that was decided to hastily construct a temporary stand of 10,000 seats. The upper part of the platform collapsed a few minutes before kick-off killing 18 and injuring 2,300.

Back in Ligue 1 and in the European Cup

The club returned to the elite for the 1994–95 season and that year reached the final of the League Cup. This era was marked by the work of Frédéric Antonetti, who coached the club between 1990 and 1994 and oversaw the development of new talents (Morlaye Soumah, Laurent Casanova, and Cyril Rool).

Antonetti coached the first team from 1994 to 2001 (with an interlude in 1998–99) and was involved in the recruitment of players such as Lubomir Moravcik, Pierre-Yves André, Frédéric Née, Franck Jurietti, and Anto Drobnjak, the latter of whom was the club's top scorer in his third season. At the end of the 1995–96 season, Drobnjak was also second in the Championship scoring charts with 20 goals, one goal behind top scorer Sonny Anderson.

In the 1996–97 season the club finished in 7th place in Ligue 1, just 3 points off the top, thus qualifying for the Intertoto Cup. The club won the Intertoto Cup, and qualified for the UEFA Cup for the 1997–98 season. Bastia eliminated Benfica in the round of 32 before falling to Steaua Bucharest in the next round. This defeat left a bitter taste due to the domination Bastia had in both matches. The performance of Bastia in the league in the following years allowed it to qualify two more times for the Intertoto Cup, in 1998 and 2001, but failed to re-qualify for the UEFA Cup.

After the departure of Antonetti in 2001, the club would not finish in the top ten again. They did reach the final of the Coupe de France in 2001–02; in their midfield was Michael Essien, who would go on to play for Lyon and Chelsea. Another player groomed by Bastia was defender Alex Song, who later played for Arsenal and Barcelona.

Between 2002 and 2005, Bastia was managed by Robert Nouzaret, Gerard Gili, François Ciccolini, and lastly the duo of Michel Padovani and Eric Durand. Each failed to take the team to the top ten, the final league placing actually falling each year (see Section championship history), despite the first team featuring the likes of Tony Vairelles, Florian Maurice, Franck Silvestre, Lilian Laslandes (all internationals) and Cyril Jeunechamp.

In the winter break of the 2004–05 season, the club fell into the relegation zone. Bastia recruited Christian Karembeu, member of the 1998 World Cup-winning France team, but Bastia would still be relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of the season after 11 consecutive years in Ligue 1.

The Descent Below

In 2005, the club was relegated to Ligue 2. Five years later, Bastia was in serious danger of descent into the Championnat National. Bastia was officially relegated to the National on 7 May 2010, following a draw (0–0) with Tours at the 37th matchday of Ligue 2.

On 6 July 2010, the club was administratively relegated to Championnat de France amateur by the Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG). The club actually had a deficit of €1.2 million, which was filled by grants from local governments (Territorial Community of Corsica, the General Council of Haute-Corse). On 23 July 2010, the Federal Council of the French Football Federation authorised Bastia to play in the 2010–11 season, as requested by the National Olympic Committee and French sports (CNOSF) after the DNCG had refused.

Despite this disrupted pre-season, Bastia performed well in the transfer window, with no fewer than six rookies. As for departures, there is mainly the transfer of Florent Ghisolfi (Reims) and Christophe Gaffory (Vannes) as well as Pierre-Yves André who decided to end his career.

The rise in Ligue 2

Faruk Hadžibegić was fired from the managers' post after poor results, and the job then passed to Frédéric Hantz. On 22 April 2011, Bastia officially earned its place in Ligue 2 after a game against Frejus-Saint Raphael. No fewer than 500 townsfolk had made the trip. On 7 May 2011, Bastia become the National champion, following a victory over Créteil by 2 goals to one, with Bastia finishing with a record tally of 91 points and unbeaten at home throughout the campaign. Sporting was leading at the half, but equalised by David Suarez, then Idrissa Sylla allowed Bastia to take the lead in the 92nd minute in a crazy atmosphere. At the end of the match, the pitch at Armand Cesari was invaded by Bastia fans, happy to celebrate with their players and their coach, Frédéric Hantz, this new title.

Return to Ligue 1

Bastia, newly promoted from the National, welcomed Jérôme Rothen, Toifilou Maoulida, François Marque, Ludovic Genest and Florian Thauvin into the club. Bastia started off on a good note, falling off slightly in the autumn. From early February until the beginning of April, Bastia did not lose a single match. On 23 April 2012, in a full Stadium Armand Cesari, Bastia virtually secured their place amongst the elite by winning against Châteauroux (2–1). On 1 May 2012, Bastia became champion of Ligue 2, 44 years after its first and only league title, with their victory over Metz at Armand Cesari. On 11 May 2012, Bastia won its last game of the season at home 2–1 against Nantes thanks to goals from Jérôme Rothen and David Suarez. The club was also on a 2-year run of being undefeated at home. Bastia became part of the very exclusive club of teams undefeated at home in Europe. Several players played their last game against Nantes in the colours of Bastia, including David Suarez and Jacques-Désiré Périatambée.

Bastia won all the trophies UNFP for Ligue 2: Jérôme Rothen, best player; Macedo Novaes, best goalkeeper; and Frédéric Hantz, best coach, who placed five players in the team line-up (Macedo Novaes, Féthi Harek, Wahbi Khazri, Sadio Diallo and Jérôme Rothen).

In the 2016–17 Ligue 1 season, after four seasons in the top division, Bastia finished bottom of the Ligue 1 table and were relegated to Ligue 2.

Sharp fall, financial troubles and slow climb back

On 22 June 2017, Bastia were relegated again to Championnat National after the DNCG had recommended a further demotion for the club. Bastia were the subject of an audit on their books which resulted in yet another demotion for failing to guarantee they had the finances to compete in Ligue 2. The DNCG released a statement on the same day stating “Following its audit today before the DNCG, Sporting Club Bastia has been given notice of a provisional relegation". In August 2017, Bastia were demoted again to the Championnat National 3 following further financial irregularities. The club gained promotion to the Championnat National 2 in the 2018–19 season, and completed a back-to-back promotion in the 2019–20 season, by being top of the National 2 Group A table when the season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bastia achieved their third successive promotion after being assured of a top two finish in the 2020–21 Championnat National.