Although Paris Volley fought for and won the right to compete in the playoffs earlier this spring, the team appears to have lost a larger battle against relegation.
The drama began in February when the French Commission audited Paris Volley’s finances and found that there was a $460,000 euro difference between the declared team payroll and that added up by the CACCP.
On March 3, the CACCP announced that the team would be kept out of the French League playoffs due to the financial discrepancies and would be administratively expelled from the league and relegated at the end of the season.
Team president Michel Rougeyron promised the team would appeal the “bookkeeping problem,” and fight for its playoff spot.
The playoffs were postponed as the appeal was in process, first to the National Directorate of Support and Management Control (DNACG), which rejected it on March 22. In the end, the team won the right to compete from the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).
Once back in the playoffs, the team qualified for the semifinals with a tiebreak win over Montpellier, before falling to Chaumont.
Still looming, however, was the possible relegation, which would not be addressed until June.
The DNACG announced on Wednesday that Paris Volley would be administratively relegated to Ligue B. The decision will be likely confirmed by the National League (LNV) on Thursday afternoon.
An appeal first to the DNACG and the CNOSF if necessary will follow.
“We’re getting ready for a long week,” Paris Volley coach Dorian Rougeyron said. “We’re going to appeal the DNACG’s decision and if the sanction is confirmed, we’ll go to the CNOSF. And then we’ll see. We’re going to fight in any case. ”
This would not be the first administrative relegation for the club, which also was sanctioned during the summer of 2007, while national champions, for not complying with the clearance of their deficit proposed by the conciliator of French sports. The team was reinstated a few weeks later.
Paris Volley is one of the most successful French clubs, having won the league’s gold medal nine times and reached the medal round in 12 of the last 17 years. In 2018, the club ranked third in Ligue A standings behind Tours and Chaumont.
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