Toulouse FC

Not to be confused with Toulouse FC (1937).

Toulouse

Logo
Full name	Toulouse Football Club
Nickname(s)	TFC, le Téfécé, le Tef, Les Pitchouns
Founded	1970 (1970)
Ground	Stadium Municipal
Ground Capacity	35,472
Chairman	Olivier Sadran
Manager	Dominique Arribage
League	Ligue 1
2014–15	Ligue 1, 17th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Toulouse Football Club, also known simply as Toulouse (familiarly as TFC), is a French association football club based in the city of Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the top level of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium Municipal located within the city. The first team is managed by former club player Dominique Arribage and captained by midfielder Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro.

Les Pitchouns have won 3 Ligue 2 and 1 Coupe de France. Toulouse have participated in European competition five times. In 2008, the club, among celebratory fanfare, qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history and, in the following season, played in the inaugural edition of the UEFA Europa League.

Toulouse is presided over by the French businessman Olivier Sadran, who took over the club following its bankruptcy in 2001 which resulted in it being relegated to the Championnat National. The club has served as a springboard for several players, most notably the World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez and international striker André-Pierre Gignac.

History

Toulouse fans celebrate qualifying for the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League

The city was left without a big side in 1967 when Toulouse FC sold its players and place in the French top flight to Paris outfit Red Star, but three years later a new club, Union Sportive Toulouse, rose from the ashes. Adopting red and yellow jerseys, the club started out in Ligue 2 and in 1977 reclaimed the name Toulouse FC. Now wearing purple and white, Les Pitchouns gained top-flight promotion in 1982. A side containing Jacques Santini and Swiss forward Daniel Jeandupeux earned a famous penalty shoot-out victory against Diego Maradona's Napoli in the 1986–87 UEFA Cup, Toulouse's maiden European campaign, but it failed to herald a bright new era. Instead, with goalkeeper Fabien Barthez having made his breakthrough and moved on, Toulouse were relegated in 1994. They subsequently bounced back and forth between Ligues 1 and 2 before slipping to the third flight in 2001 after financial problems. Toulouse were back in the top flight two seasons later, steadily finding their feet before a memorable 2007 campaign when they finished third to earn a place in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. The draw was unfavourable, however, and Liverpool overpowered them 5–0 on aggregate.

In the second match of the 2007–08 season, Toulouse beat the Olympique Lyonnais 1–0 at the Stadium Municipal with a goal from Johan Elmander. After the victory against Olympique Lyonnais Toulouse struggled all season to avoid relegation. Their Ligue 1 place was finally secured on the last day of the season with a 2–1 home win against Valenciennes. The 2008–09 season marked unexpected success for Toulouse. The club finished fourth in the Ligue 1 table with 64 points, and secured a spot in the new Europa League. After a difficult season the previous year in which the club struggled to avoid relegation, not much was expected of Toulouse. The 2008–09 season also marked the emergence of striker André-Pierre Gignac, who led all scorers in Ligue 1 with 24 goals and was awarded a call-up to the French national team.

Name changes

• Union Sportive Toulouse (1970–77).
• Toulouse Football Club (1977–).

Stadium

Main article: Stadium Municipal

Toulouse playing Lille at the Stadium Municipal

Toulouse play their home matches at the Stadium Municipal. Built in 1937, the stadium presently has a capacity of 35,472. The stadium was used as a venue for the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2007 Rugby Union World Cup.

Colours

The violet is a reference to one of two Toulouse nicknames: la Cité des violettes (the City of Violets), the second one being la Ville rose (the Pink City), which explains the colour of former alternate jerseys. The team's logo displays the gold and blood-red Occitan cross, the symbol of Occitania, of which Toulouse is a historical capital.

Club rivalries

Derby de la Garonne

Main article: Derby de la Garonne

The Derby de la Garonne is a derby match between Girondins de Bordeaux and Toulouse. The name of the derby derives from the fact that Bordeaux and Toulouse are the two major clubs that play in cities that situate themselves along the Garonne River. The consistency and competitiveness of the rivalry developed following Toulouse's return to Ligue 1 after being administratively relegated to the Championnat National in 2001.

Players

Current squad

For a list of all former and current Toulouse FC players, see Category:Toulouse FC players.

French teams are limited to four players without EU citizenship. The squad list includes only the principal nationality of each player; several non-European players on the squad have dual citizenship with an EU country. Also, players from the ACP countries—countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific that are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement—are not counted against non-EU quotas due to the Kolpak ruling.

As of 7 August 2015

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Mauro Goicoechea 2 DF Maxime Spano 3 DF Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik 4 MF Tongo Doumbia 5 DF Issa Diop 6 DF William Matheus 7 MF Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro (captain) 8 MF Étienne Didot 9 FW Martin Braithwaite 10 FW Wissam Ben Yedder 11 FW Aleksandar Pešić 12 FW Youssef Benali 13 MF Zinédine Machach 14 MF Pantxi Sirieix 15 DF Uroš Spajić

No. Position Player 16 GK Marc Vidal 17 MF Adrien Regattin 18 MF Óscar Trejo 19 MF Somália 20 DF Steeve Yago 21 MF Abel Aguilar 23 MF Yann Bodiger 24 DF Pavle Ninkov 25 FW Sana Zaniou 26 DF Marcel Tisserand (on loan from Monaco) 27 MF Alexis Blin 28 MF Mihai Roman 29 DF François Moubandje 30 GK Ali Ahamada 40 GK Alban Lafont

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player — DF Dragoș Grigore (on loan to Al-Sailiya) — DF Issiaga Sylla (on loan to Gazélec Ajaccio)

No. Position Player — DF Dušan Veškovac (on loan to Troyes AC) — MF Dominik Furman (on loan to Legia Warsaw)

Honours

As of 21 August 2013.

Domestic

• Ligue 2:
  • Winners: 1953, 1982, 2003

• Coupe de France:
  • Winners: 1957

Club officials

The Board

President	Olivier Sadran
Association President	José Da Silva
Manager	Dominique Arribagé
Academy Director	Rémy Loret

Source: LFP.fr

Managers

• José Farías (1970–72)
• Richard Boucher (1973–74), (1974–75), (1976–77)
• Ángel Marcos (1977–78)
• Just Fontaine (1978–79)
• Pierre Cahuzac (1979–83)
• Daniel Jeandupeux (1 July 1983 – 30 June 1985)
• Jacques Santini (1 July 1985 – 30 June 1989)
• Pierre Mosca (1 July 1989 – 30 June 1991)
• Victor Zvunka (1 July 1991–Sept 1, 1992)
• Serge Delmas (1 July 1992 – 14 Jan 1994)

• Jean-Luc Ruty (14 Jan 1994 – 30 June 1994)
• Rolland Courbis (1 July 1994 – 1 Nov 1995)
• Alain Giresse (1 Nov 1995 – 30 June 1998)
• Guy Lacombe (1 July 1998 – 25 Jan 1999)
• Alain Giresse (26 Jan 1999 – 9 Oct 2000)
• Robert Nouzaret (1 Oct 2000 – 30 June 2001)
• Erick Mombaerts (1 July 2001 – 30 June 2006)
• Elie Baup (1 July 2006 – 30 May 2008)
• Alain Casanova (30 May 2008 – 16 Mar 2015)
• Dominique Arribage (16 Mar 2015 – present)

See also

• Toulouse FC (women)

Further reading

• Toulouse Football Club, de 1937 à nos jours, de Jean-Louis Berho et Didier Pitorre, avec la collaboration de Jean-Paul Cazeneuve et Jérôme Leclerc (Éditions Universelles)
• La Grande Histoire du TFC, de Nicolas Bernard (Éditions Universelles)
• TouFoulCan, la Bande-dessinée qui supporte le Toulouse Football Club.

External links

• (French)
• Toulouse Football Club at Ligue 1 (French)
• Toulouse FC at UEFA