Linas-Montlhéry Sports and Athletic Entente will compete well for his 32nd Coupe de France final against RC Lens, PSG dolphin in L1, in Essonne, his department. The formation of the N3 (5th division) will travel to the Robert-Bobin stadium in Bondoufle, 10km away, to face the Sang et Or on 6 or 7 January on a date and time still to be defined. The Paul-Desgouillons stadium, with a capacity of 1,500, last year hosted the 32nd final against Angers (2-0) then the 16th final against SC Amiens (2-4 on penalties, 3-3 ap ) but was not homologated for this event.
The threat of an overturning was even hovering, especially on social media, because the Essonne amateur club will have to pay a bill of 40,000 euros for security costs which amount to 155,000 euros. A sum that the leaders have finally decided to pay. Almost 3 years ago a day, the Essonne club had faced PSG (0-6 loss) at the same stage of the competition in front of 16,500 spectators.
“Luckily we have a healthy cash flow”
“It was difficult to decide why these security costs will affect a large part of ticketing revenues, explains Mickaël Bertansetti, president of ESA Linas-Montlhéry. There is such fervor in Essonne for this event that it would have been heartbreaking to go to Lens and deprive some of our supporters and licensees of such a poster. So we decided to stay here. We would have liked the department to take care of everything like against PSG (€120,000) in 2020, but I was told they had financial restrictions. Luckily we have pretty healthy cash flow otherwise we would have been stuck. »
After surviving three penalties against Entente SSG (N3) in the 4th round (4-2), Sarcelles (R1) in the 6th round (5-4) and Paris XVe (R2) in the 7th round (4-2) , Linas-Monthléry will play his seventh match in the competition this season. In the championship, Stéphane Cabrelli’s men climbed up to 10th place (out of 14) thanks to two victories in a row. They will take on CA Vitry and Paris FC reserve before this 32nd Coupe de France final against RC Lens. “The task seems very complicated against the northerners, confides Mickaël Bertansetti. Last season against Angers we played on our synthetic pitch with a very close crowd, but this time we will face a better quality opponent. We will do everything not to play a gala match like we did against PSG. We want to make a real football game to annoy the northerners for as long as possible. »
