Red Star FC: The historic and socially aware community club looking to emerge as alternative to PSG in Paris
Just outside the Périphérique to the north of the French capital, one of the country's oldest teams is on the rise again. I went to visit the Stade Bauer to find out more...
Three young boys run down the street. On the corner, groups of fans congregate outside the Olympic bar. Opposite, the gates swing open to allow the team bus to pull into the car park. Higher up, old floodlights tower over the Stade Bauer. It’s match night. Ici c’est Saint-Ouen. This is Red Star FC.
Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, just over four miles from the centre of the French capital. It is home to a famous flea market, to more than 50,000 people and to one of the oldest football clubs in France.
Red Star were founded in 1897 by former FIFA president Jules Rimet, the man who gave his name to the original World Cup trophy. Rimet set up the club with his brother Modeste and two friends in a café on Rue de Grenelle in Paris. According to an exhibition on the club’s history, the name comes from the Red Star Line, a cross-channel ferry service between England and France.
Originally based in the seventh arondissement in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower, Red Star moved twice before eventually settling in Saint-Ouen in 1909. Four-time winners of the Coupe de France in the 1920s and again in 1942, Red Star were also founding members of Ligue 1, but have not played in France’s top flight since 1975.
“Upon its creation, Red Star was defined as a multi-sports club (athletics, wrestling, fencing, cycling, football), in the image of Jules Rimet’s main ambition, which was to bring together the social classes through sport: the club’s DNA still today,” a display board at the Red Star 125 exhibition says.
Though not politically motivated – beyond bringing together the social classes – in its origins, Red Star’s fans are largely left wing and proudly antifascist. The club has several groups of ultras mostly centred around Saint-Ouen, which is within the Seine-Saint-Denis department.
That department has the greatest concentration of immigrants in the city and the highest levels of unemployment. Red Star has become a symbol of social struggle and at Stade Bauer, one of the stands is named after the club’s former player Rino della Negra, who was part of the French Resistance and was shot by the Nazis in 1944. More recently, the fans have shown support to refugees and also to striking nurses in Paris.
In addition, the club’s shirt sponsor is LinkedOut, a non-governmental organisation which seeks to help and connect people with no qualifications, those who have been unemployed for long periods and locals who have grown up homeless, in care or in difficult circumstances. A sort of LinkedIn for the more deprived.
For young men in the area without qualifications and with few job prospects, football is seen as a way out. Paul Pogba grew up in similar surroundings to the east of Paris and told the Financial Times in 2018: “There is only football. Whether at school or in the neighbourhood, everyone will play football. That is what helps us to not do stupid things.”
Red Star’s academy works to train and develop youngsters as players, but also as men and women: through the work of Red Star LAB, the club has created cultural and artistic workshops for its graduates during school holidays since 2008.
These workshops cover a wide range of cultural and artistic themes, including cinema, theatre, photography, painting, dance, cookery, radio, music and creative writing. Every child within the club has access to the sessions, led by professionals from the local area and beyond, which also highlight the importance of communication and collaboration.
While developing youngsters is central to the club’s philosophy and also its growth, the problem for Red Star right now is that their status in France’s third tier means they are unable to sign young players between 15 and 19 years old. But that could change soon. Promotion from the Championnat National to Ligue 2 is a real possibility this season as the Étoile Rouge sit in fourth spot with four rounds of the competition remaining.
If Red Star can earn promotion this summer and avoid relegation in their first season in Ligue 2, the club will be labelled a centre de formation, which will protect their academy and allow them to keep, support and train young players from the region, which will be key to further growth and is part of their roadmap for development over the next few seasons.
That path has not always seemed so clear. Red Star almost disappeared altogether in 2003 and was down in France’s sixth tier as recently as 2006. Two years later, film director Patrice Haddad took over and gradually, the club has moved forward again.
With their stadium unfit for football in Ligue 2 following recent promotions, Red Star have had to relocate for three separate seasons over the past few years: twice to Beauvais and once to the Stade Jean-Bouin in the 16th arondissement. Neither felt like home and the club’s supporters have strongly rejected plans to move out of Saint-Ouen.
Red Star returned to Bauer after relegation back to the Championnat in 2019 and renovation work is now well underway at the stadium which will increase the capacity to around 10,000, making it suitable for life in Ligue 2 and even for Ligue 1 if the club can continue its upward trajectory in the next few seasons.
Stade Bauer is currently operating at low capacity as building work continues, essentially with only stand at the moment. But Red Star’s ultras ensure it is still noisy. And it certainly feels like home.
Those fans were opposed to some of the ideas for the new stadium, with initial plans placing a restaurant right above their section. Those proposals have since been scrapped and the ultras will have one end of the ground to themselves.
There is also opposition from supporters following the takeover of investment company and multi-club owners 777 Partners. Following the takeover last year, fans threw smoke bombs onto the pitch in a game against Sète in April, which was abandoned, and the club were hit with a stadium ban. There have been two further stadium bans this season: one after Red Star fans pointed lasers at Canal+ cameras in November in a protest against TV scheduling (matches at Stade Bauer are usually played on Friday nights); and another when supporters threw cups onto the pitch following provocation by a rival player in their game against Le Puy in March.
However, the protests against 777 have died down in recent times due to the positive results on the pitch this season and the fact that the US firm has not sought to make major changes at Red Star.
“You still see ‘Haddad out’ chants and ‘777 Out’ merch & stickers around Stade Bauer, and most Red Star fans are ideologically opposed to multi-club ownership, but the fact is that nothing has boiled over since the takeover again because on the pitch everything is working relatively well,” French football journalist and Red Star fan George Boxall told me.
“The promotion race this season is certainly a huge distraction from the ownership worries. The Americans are also yet to put a step wrong, they aren't particularly involved in a lot of decision making day to day at the club, but they managed to secure Habib Beye’s contract and a sporting director in Reda Hammache who knows the area and the club quite well.”
Red Star beat FC Bastia-Borgo 1-0 in their last match and are now fourth in the table with four fixtures remaining. Two teams will be promoted as the league is restructured and the Étoile Rouge are currently five points behind the top two, Martigues and Concarneau, with a game in hand after the leaders played out a 1-1 draw at the weekend. A win for Red Star away from home on Tuesday against another Paris team, fifth-placed Versailles, would therefore see them (or their opponents) move to within just two points of the top with three rounds remaining. And if Red Star can earn promotion, they will renew rivalries in Ligue 2 with another capital club: Paris FC.
But considering Paris is one of Europe’s biggest cities and also now a hotbed for football talent in Europe, with exciting young players emerging from the sprawls and satellite towns around the French capital, it is under-represented at the highest level. Currently, there is only one Parisian club in Ligue 1 (PSG) and one in Ligue 2 (Paris FC). By comparison, there are seven London clubs in the Premier League and three in the Championship.
Paris Saint-Germain have dominated French football in recent years, of course, winning most of the domestic silverware since it was acquired by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. But PSG are a relatively recent phenomenon, having been founded in 1970.
By then, Red Star had already been in existence for 73 years and celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2022. On and off the pitch, the club is moving in the right direction and it feels like the time might be right for the Étoile Rouge to take advantage of that space behind PSG. They have the history, the heritage and the ideology, plus a loyal support and a strong following internationally due to their unique fan culture and recent link-up with VICE media.
On my recent visit to Stade Bauer, I asked Red Star coach Habib Beye about the stadium development and all the plans for the club. “To be honest, I hope I will he here to see that,” he said. “Because it’s going to be a year [before the renovations are finished]. But if we win games, and if we go up and up, maybe the renovation will go quicker. I’m so happy to be part of the challenge we have today as a team. As the manager. The club is always moving – and it’s moving in the right direction.
“We know it’s a lot of renovation, but for now the atmosphere is unbelievable. And I hope, in two or three years, we have a full stadium, with a great team. As high as possible. We are working every day to be better. Right now it’s [Championnat] National. Maybe next time it’s Ligue 2. We are working to be better and better every day. It’s exciting for me as a young coach.
“But when you play like this in a stadium, with 2,600 fans and that atmosphere, it’s unbelievable for the players. The club is working well at the moment. Everyone is working to put Red Star as high as we can. I’m part of the challenge and I love it.”
On the possibility of establishing Red Star as the second team in Paris and the banlieue, he joked: “We won’t challenge Paris Saint-Germain in the next two or three years!”
“But if you look at the club, you can feel something: this club has history and when you are the manager with this kind of club, you want to put this club with the best teams in France. So I would say it’s an opportunity for us to put Red Star as high as we can. But we have to go step by step.
“Paris Saint-Germain are big, they have money, history as well. For me there is space for another team from Paris. Because you have a lot of players in this area. You open the door and you have two great players. You open the fridge, you have three great players. You go to the stadium next to you and you will see 10 good players, so what we have to do is keep working with young players and make sure they can go as high as they can.”
Beye cited striker Jovany Ikanga, Man of the Match in their last game, as an example of how Red Star are identifying young players in order to grow and challenge
“A few months ago he was playing in the sixth division and now he is playing in the National. Maybe in one year, he will be unbelievable. That’s what we do at Red Star. That’s what I do as a manager. I’m training to get young players as high as I can. And I hope we will challenge PSG in, I don’t know, 10 years. Maybe five. I don’t know, but there is space for a lot of teams in Paris. Right now we have to win games to make sure that on 26th May, we can celebrate something big.”
There is certainly room for another top team in Paris and as an alternative to PSG, the Étoile Rouge could not be more different. Whether promotion to Ligue 2 happens this year or not, progress is being made for this historic and socially aware community club. In the north of Paris, a Red Star is rising.