Fans flock to Les Verts revival

Their return to European football after an absence of more than 20 years may still be a month away but anticipation is already running high at AS Saint-Etienne with the club selling a record number of season tickets as fans flock to the Stade Geoffroy Guichard.

Record sales
Excluding their 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup campaign, Les Verts last qualified for European competition in 1982/83, bowing out of the UEFA Cup in the second round after a 4-0 aggregate defeat by CU Bohemians Praha. Despite the two fallow decades that followed, however, St-Etienne have remained one of the most popular clubs in France thanks in no small part to their successes in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and this enduring appeal is reflected in the fact that a record 17,419 fans have bought season tickets this term. "We could have sold more, but the stadium capacity [35,525] limited us," said the club's executive director Vincent Tong Cuong.

Few seats available
"We also wanted people from the whole country to be able to come and find one-off tickets to support us," he added, explaining that half the stadium will remain available for supporters without a season ticket. Nevertheless, seats are likely to be at a premium when St-Etienne – who finished fifth in Ligue 1 in 2007/08 – kick off their UEFA Cup campaign in the first round, with the games to be played on 18 September and 2 October after the draw in Monaco on 29 August.

Golden age
To understand why St-Etienne means so much to so many fans, it is necessary to look back 25 years. Between 1957 and 1981, the club won ten French titles, six domestic cups and boasted players of the calibre of Michel Platini, Dominique Rocheteau, Ivan Ćurković, Christian Lopez, Dominique Bathenay and Oswaldo Piazza. Their golden era coincided with a period of struggle for the French national team, who did not recapture public imagination until their brilliant showing at the 1982 finals, so St-Etienne were regarded by many as an alternative national team, especially when taking part in continental competition.

European nights
Les Verts qualified for the European Champion Clubs' Cup ten times, reaching the semi-finals in 1974/75 before losing 1-0 against FC Bayern München in the following season's final. Nonetheless, Robert Herbin's side were still greeted like heroes upon their return. Over the years, however, St-Etienne went into decline and their achievements were eclipsed by Olympique de Marseille's UEFA Champions League victory in 1993 and a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph for Paris Saint-Germain FC three years later. Now they have returned, however, and their passionate fans are determined to make the most of it.