This Friday, April 29 marks the anniversary of Dijon Football Côte d’Or. For the occasion, France 3 Bourgogne looks back on four key dates that have marked the history of the club.
Dijon Football Côte d’Or is certainly a young club, but it has some notorious events in its history. From its creation in 1998 to its golden years in the early 2000s, through its superb season in Ligue 1 in 2017, the club has been able to thrill the city and its supporters.
1998: creation
At the end of the 1990s, the city had two major clubs: the Dijon Football Club and the Cercle Football Dijonnais, which both played in the French amateur championship (CFA), i.e. three divisions below Ligue 1.“These were two clubs at the same level, with two presidents who, with the support of the city, wanted to merge”, says in 2010 Bernard Gnecchi, who will become the first president of the DFCO and will remain so until 2012.
The Dijon Football Côte d’Or association was created on April 10, 1998. On April 21, the French Football Federation (FFF) gave its agreement to the merger of the two clubs. The DFCO begins in CFA. Eight days later, on April 29, 1998, Dijon Football Côte d’Or was officially born., chaired by Bernard Gnecchi. The colors of the club are not those that we know today: the players are in blue at home, in yellow outside. Red is only the third jersey: it represents the colors of the two clubs and of the city. As the games go on, players find that they win more often when they play in red… and end up adopting it as the main jersey of the DFCO.
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Philippe Duchâtel, supporter of the Cercle Football Dijonnais at the time, is delighted today with this union. “It was beneficial for both clubs, we had a much better team after that. From the first year we were competitive and that boded well for the future.”
Find the report on the history of the DFCO from 1998 to 2010:
video length: 03min 20
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DFCO history
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©France Televisions
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2002-2007: the Garcia era
The arrival of Rudi Garcia as coach in 2002 took the club to a new dimension. From his second year under the colors of Dijon, the coach passed by Marseille and Milan allows Dijon to move up to Ligue 2. The same season, the reds will achieve a historic course in the Coupe de France until the semi-finals, beating prestigious clubs such as AS Saint-Étienne and RC Lens.
“Rudi by his knowledge and his seriousness has established us in the professional world”notes Bernard Gnecchi, interviewed in 2010 by France 3 Bourgogne. “He brought his touch and his professionalism, he prepared matches and training differently. He managed his group in a different way, it was an important shift in the evolution of the club”confides at the same time André Royer, founding member of the club and president of the Dijon Football Club.
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In five years, Rudi Garcia forged his reputation and Dijon FCO wrote the first pages of its history. After several seasons of struggling at the top of the table without however reaching the Grail of the climb, Rudi Garcia took off in 2007.
2011: first historic rise in the elite of French football
Installed in Ligue 2, Dijon dreams of going up to Ligue 1. Objective which will be realized during the 2010-2011 championship : Dijon grabs third place and wins its ticket to Ligue 1.
“At the beginning, it was unthinkable to go up, we only realized it at the end”, remembers Philippe Duchâtel. “It all came down to the last game and the atmosphere at the stadium was crazy”.
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The club will then experience a complicated season and go down to Ligue 2. President since the creation of the club in 1998, Bernard Gnecchi resigns.
2017-2018: memorable season for Dijon
The 2017-2018 season will go down as one of the best seasons in the club’s history. The DFCO, reassembled in Ligue 1 two years earlier, finished in tenth place in the championship with 48 points. Dijon are one of the best attacks in France and one of the best home teams.
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Florian, a young DFCO supporter since 2016, remembers this season as “the most beautiful of seasons.”
“When I went to the stadium, it was always full. I thought we were going to play maintenance again that year. The experience acquired and the recruits allowed us to produce a good game, it was very pleasant to to see.”
Florian, supporter of the DFCO
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Since then, the DFCO has been going through a more delicate period. Last in Ligue 1 in 2021, the club is relegated to Ligue 2. Today, three days before the end of the championship, the Burgundians are thirteenth, with no hope of going back to Ligue 1 this year. The supporters hope that the beautiful days will return, and that the Reds will be able to remember the good memories of their glorious years.
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