Coupe de France: do Toulouse FC supporters make the trip to Guingamp? – Coupe de France: Lannion FC challenges Toulouse
Nearly 800 km separate Toulouse from Guingamp. Sunday January 8, 2023, at 6 p.m., the Stade de Roudourou, in Guingamp, should not be overwhelmed by a purple wave. On the lawn, the FC Toulousewho returned to Ligue 1 in 2022, will enter the Coupe de France by facing the Lannion FC, five levels below! Distance, day and time really don’t affect the movement of supporters from the south.
“It’s a bit far”, for Toulouse supporters
The Violets Supporters and the Fan Club confirmed to us that they would not come (Editor’s note: the TFC has nearly seven supporters’ clubs). “Transport has become exorbitantly expensive,” says Alain Grolier, president of the Supporters des Violets. “It’s a bit far, recognizes Nadine Espinasse, the president of the supporters’ club who nevertheless has good memories of Guingamp. For all matches, we do not deny the opponent. We hope that the TFC will not make kids against Lannion ”.
How many Toulouse supporters will there be in the end? “It’s hard to say how many they will be. For the Ligue 1 match, Thursday, December 29, 2022, against OM at the Vélodrome, there were 500 of them. If you have 200 at Guingamp, that’s the big maximum, ”comments Julien Balidas, journalist at France Bleu Occitanie who follows all TFC matches.
The main objective of the TFC is to stay in Ligue 1. The Coupe de France comes a little later, even if the supporters dream of a great epic.
“The Coupe de France, not the priority of the TFC”
However, this does not mean a lack of interest from the supporters for the opponent and the Coupe de France!
But our radio commentator recognizes that “the Coupe de France is not the primary objective of the TFC. The club moved up to Ligue 1 this summer. The objective is to stay in the league and stay in Ligue 1. This year, there will be 20% relegation teams. There are big appointments in January. Toulouse will play its direct competitors for maintenance like Brest. The Coupe de France comes a little later, even if the supporters dream of a great epic”.
“By going to face Lannion, Toulouse is a big favourite, he specifies. Even rotating her team, she has to qualify. But in recent years, Toulouse has been knocked out by amateur teams: one from the suburbs of Orléans, one from Versailles”.
The Lannion supporters had to do the weight
Realistically, the Lannionnais small thumbs hope, however, to pull out of the game. Their opponents should not take out their “executives”, who should rather be mobilized on other deadlines: Wednesday January 11, the match against AJ Auxerre and on Sunday January 15 (at home), against Stade Brestois. The Lannionnais players will, in any case, be carried by their supporters who should do the weight (they are hoped for between 4,000 and 8,000). Lannion is already less far than Toulouse!