RC Strasbourg Alsace
Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, commonly known as RC Strasbourg or simply just Racing, is a French professional association football club founded in 1906 and based in the city of Strasbourg, Alsace. It became a professional club in 1933, and is currently playing in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, having won the 2016–17 Ligue 2 championship. This comes after the club was demoted to the fifth tier of French football at the conclusion of the 2010–11 Championnat National season after going into financial liquidation. Renamed RC Strasbourg Alsace, they won the CFA championship in 2012–13, and became Championnat National champions in 2015–16. Stade de la Meinau has been the club's stadium since 1914.
RC Strasbourg is one of six clubs to have won all three major French trophies: Division 1, now Ligue 1, in 1979; the Coupe de France in 1951, 1966 and 2001; and the Coupe de la Ligue in 1964, 1997, 2005 and 2019. It is also among the six teams to have played more than 2,000 games in France's top flight and has taken part in 52 European games since 1961. By contrast, it has also experienced relegation at least once a decade since the early 1950s. It has changed its manager 52 times in 75 years of professional play.
The destiny of the RC Strasbourg has always been wedded to the history of Alsace. Like the region, the club has changed nationality three times and has a troubled history. The club was founded when the city was part of the German Empire, and the club insisted on its Alsatian and popular roots from the beginning, in opposition to the first Strasbourg-based clubs which came from the German-born bourgeoisie. When Alsace was returned to France after the First World War, the club changed its name from 1. FC Neudorf to the current Racing Club de Strasbourg, in imitation of Pierre de Coubertin's Racing Club de France, a clear gesture of Francophilia. RC Strasbourg players lived through the Second World War as most Alsatians did: evacuated in 1939, annexed in 1940 and striving to avoid Nazification and incorporation in the Wehrmacht between 1942 and 1944. When Alsace was definitively returned to France after the war, Strasbourg's identity switched towards Jacobinism with, for example, emotional wins in the cup in 1951 and 1966 amidst Franco-Alsatian controversies.
History
Founded in 1906 as Fußballclub Neudorf, Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace's history has been marked by constant periods of instability, firstly due to political issues, and secondly due to corporate issues. In spite of this, the team was able to carve out a place for itself in the golden roll of the French league by winning a number of trophies, the most important of which was the championship in the 1978–79 season.''Fußballclub Neudorf''
In the early 1900s, the English export of soccer to foreign countries also reached the deepest parts of the German Empire, including the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine. One of the cities most involved in this process was the capital city of Strasbourg, where several football clubs saw the light of day, including Fußballclub Neudorf, founded by a group of students from the Neudorf district, located south of the city. The team, which was financially supported by the students' teacher, made its debut in a match against FC Germania from the Schluthfeld district, in which it withdrew after conceding seven goals in the first forty-five minutes of play.Over the next three years, the team, renamed Fußballclub Cäsar Neudorf and given a corporate organizational chart to cope with the inexperience of the players, continued to produce unconvincing results, attracting criticism and threatening to split several times. Thanks to the arrival of Louis Becker as president, in 1909 Neudorf was able to gain membership in the Verband Süddeutscher Fußball-Vereine, the football association in the southern part of the German Empire, which was part of the third tier of German football. Neudorf began a gradual improvement in results: thanks to a highly offensive style of play, the team achieved large victories, which led to a double promotion within two years. In 1914, a few weeks before promotion to the first division, Neudorf acquired its first playing field, the Hämmerlé's Garten, on which the Meinau Stadium was built. In the same year, all sports activities were interrupted due to the outbreak of the First World War.
The debut in French football
With the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine to France at the end of the war, it was decided to change the name of the club, which, in homage to Racing Club de France, became Racing Club de Strasbourg. In the decade following the end of hostilities, Strasbourg played in the Alsace regional championship and, from the 1920–21 season, in the French Cup. In the latter competition, the team never made it past the round of 16, but in the 1925–26 season, it pulled off an upset by eliminating Red Star, a team that at the time held the record for most national cups won. It was also during this period that the first wooden stands were built on the field, which later became the Meinau Stadium.In 1932, Strasbourg's management rejected a proposal to turn the team professional that had just been approved by the Football Federation. Attempts to change management's decision yielded a positive result a year later when, after a vote of 126 for, 2 against and 2 abstentions, the team was finally allowed to become professional and debut in the second division.
After winning the playoffs against rivals Mulhouse and Saint-Étienne, the Alsatians battled with Sochaux for the title in their debut in the top flight. Initially, Strasbourg had the upper hand, finishing first in the first half of the season, but lost the head-to-head match on the road to Sochaux, who went on to win the title despite losing the final match. In the following championships, the team, boosted by German striker Oskar Rohr, confirmed its status as a mid-table team, while in the 1936–37 Coupe de France, Strasbourg reached the final: again, Sochaux prevailed, winning 2–1 in a comeback.
Re-annexation to the German Reich
At the beginning of World War II, with the occupation of France by the Third Reich army, the team was reconstituted as an amateur club by some players who had fled to the south of the country. After winning the regional championship, the team was introduced into the German football system, taking the name Rasensportclub Straßburg and playing in the Gauliga Elsaß.From then until the liberation of Alsace, Strasbourg would play in four editions of the Gauliga, finishing second three times in a row and participating in the 1941–42 edition of the German Cup, where they were eliminated by Mulhouse in the first round. Notable during this period was the heated rivalry with Red Star Strasbourg, renamed SS Strasbourg after their affiliation with the regime's political police.
The postwar period
At the end of hostilities, with the return of Alsace to the political control of France, Strasbourg was reintegrated into the same football system in which it had participated before the outbreak of the war. After finishing twelfth in the league at the end of the war, Strasbourg came close to a double in the 1946–47 season, finishing among the contenders for the championship and competing for the French Cup until the final, where they were defeated by Lille.In the following seasons, Strasbourg went through a period of mixed results: in the 1948–49 championship, the team, relegated on the field, avoided relegation thanks to Colmar's abandonment of its professional status. Two seasons later, the team won its first official trophy by winning the 1950–51 edition of the French Cup: this was possible thanks to a victory in the final against Valenciennes, which sparked celebrations throughout Alsace, culminating in the team being welcomed by 50,000 fans.
Winning this trophy did not bring stability to the team's results, as they dropped to the second division three times during the 1950s, only to return to the top flight immediately afterwards. The only notable result of the decade came in the 1954–55 season, when Strasbourg, led by Ernst Stojaspal, contended for the top spots in the standings, finishing fourth overall, and were eliminated by Lille in the French Cup semifinals.
The debut in Europe
In the early 1960s, Strasbourg had the chance to make their debut on the European stage, playing in the 1961–62 edition of the Fairs Cup, where they were eliminated in the first round by MTK Hungária. Thanks to subsidies from the municipality, Strasbourg experienced a period of improved results, culminating in the 1964–65 season, during which the team fought for the title: in second place, one point behind Nantes with four games to play, the Alsatians drew the head-to-head match and then succumbed in the final, finishing fifth. In the same season, the team had an excellent performance in the Fairs Cup, reaching the quarterfinals, where they were eliminated by Manchester United, who had already guaranteed qualification to the semifinals from the first leg.The following season, Strasbourg reached the final of the French Cup for the fourth time in the club's history, defeating Toulouse after equalizing with a minute remaining and then winning in extra time. In the final, the Alsatians faced newly crowned French champions Nantes, whom they defeated 1–0. In the same season, Strasbourg also participated in the Fairs Cup, where they met AC Milan in the first round. After losing 1–0 at the San Siro, the Alsatians won the return leg 2–1, forcing a play-off, which Milan won on a draw after the match ended 1–1.
In the following seasons, Strasbourg's results in competitions were unremarkable, so much so that the club's management decided to merge the club with the amateur team Pierrots Vauban, renaming it Racing Pierrots Strasbourg Meinau. However, the results were unsatisfactory: in the first season under the new name, the team was relegated to Division 2, only to return to the top flight the following year. A second relegation in the 1975–76 season led to a split in the club with the re-founding of Pierrots Vauban and the restoration of the Racing Club de Strasbourg name.