Coupe de France: Roannais Foot – Nîmes, a special match for Johann Charpenet

Every year, the Coupe de France delivers its share of stories that make this competition unique in the footballing landscape. For its first at the 7th round stadium, Roannais Foot welcomes a professional club and not just any: Nîmes Olympique, which was still a resident of Ligue 1 in 2021. It is also the former club of Johann Charpenet, the 47-year-old Roanne trainer. From 1998 to 2002, the defender trained at OL played at Costières in Division 2. He made a quarter-final and a semi-final of the Coupe de France with the NO, before reaching the final at the Stade de France. with Sedan in 2005.

This 7th round of the Coupe de France will therefore have a particular flavor for the technician who returned to Roanne in 2010 after a last professional experience in Elche in Spain. At the microphone of Activ Radio, Johann Charpenet talks about his joy at finding Nîmes (“the club that had the most impact on me”), but also his motivation “when I enter the field it’s to win […] why not make a surprise?

Tensions over the organization of the match

Rarely has the Malleval stadium hosted such an official match event. The dilapidated Roannais Foot enclosure is, however, not adapted to accommodate the crowd of curious people: the capacity has been reduced to only 1,581 places due to the Vigipirate plan. The stand above the dojo is entirely reserved for Nîmes supporters, whose travel is subject to high-risk match classification by the French Football Federation. The reason: tensions with their management, but also with the Saint-Etienne supporters… The 800 or so places put on sale by Roannais Foot at the start of the week found buyers in less than an hour, causing disappointment among many football fans weaned from events on the territory. A broadcast of the meeting on the internet is being studied.