Arsenal’s trip to Lens evokes glory days in miners’ town hooked to football

Issued on: 03/10/2023 – 14:48

4 min

Nestled in between the old slag heaps of northern France, now a UNESCO world heritage site, the 38,000-capacity stadium famously has more seats than the entire population of Lens. And for the 30th consecutive match, the local favourites will play to a full house when they take on Arsenal in their second group clash.

“They could probably have filled the stadium up twice, such is the fervour behind the team,” said local journalist Joël Domenighetti, who covers the Racing Club de Lens (RC Lens, or just Lens) for France’s leading sports daily L’Equipe. He pointed to a “fusional relationship” between the football club, its hometown and the former coal-mining region around it.

That relationship is why the Sang et Or – a nickname derived from their iconic red and yellow striped shirts – rank among France’s most popular clubs, despite having only won the French League once, a quarter of a century ago.

“They can rely on a loud, festive and colourful crowd that embodies the notion of foot populaire (working-class football),” said Domenighetti, noting that the provision of cheap tickets for around a quarter of all seats – a contractual obligation – helps preserve the club’s populaire character.

He highlighted the fans’ role in shaping their club’s identity and style of play.

“In Marseille, the fans want their players to be rebels: it’s Marseille vs the world. In Paris, it’s La Scala, you’ve got to showcase your technical skills,” Domenighetti explained. “In Lens, the players are expected to attack, even in defence, and give the fans something to shout about – that’s how they won the title back in 1998.”

Tractor and trailer

When Lens clinched the title that year, there was no open-top bus in town for the players’ victory parade. Instead, they climbed into a farming trailer painted in red and yellow and pulled along by a tractor, with the club’s legendary president Gervais Martel at the wheel.

Months later, the unfancied French side travelled to London to play Arsène Wenger’s mighty Arsenal at Wembley. A goal by Mickael Debeve gave them a shock 1-0 win over the likes of Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Nicolas Anelka – to the delight of Lens’ 8,000 travelling fans.

The Sang et Or were nevertheless denied a place in the knockout rounds by Andriy Shevchenko’s Dynamo Kyiv, and two years later Arsenal gained revenge by beating the French club in the UEFA Cup semi-finals.

They did have one other crack at the Champions League in 2002, beating AC Milan and drawing with Bayern Munich. But decline set in as they suffered three relegations between 2008 and 2015 and spent the best part of a decade in second division.

It was hard to imagine them returning to the top flight of European football, particularly given the social and economic context in the Lens area, one of France’s poorest, blighted by unemployment since the demise of the coal-mining industry.

Out of the pit

A quarter of a century on, the trailer that carried the 1998 champions is still parked outside the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, a towering structure topped only by the abandoned coal slags that dot the landscape and are inseparable from the region’s history and fabric.

“The last coal mines closed more than three decades ago, but their legacy is still very present,” said Domenighetti. It is anchored in people’s memories, in the local landscape, and in the ritual commemorations of the many disasters that plunged the community into mourning.

Naturally, it also features on the club’s logo, which bears a miner’s lamp alongside the town’s coat of arms.

While the mining industry has long stopped bankrolling the local football team, Lens found another investor in Paris-based financier Joseph Oughourlian, whose arrival in 2016 kicked off the club’s current resurgence.

After securing promotion in 2020, under coach Franck Haise, Lens improved steadily until charging to a remarkable second-place finish last season, just one point behind Paris Saint-Germain – despite operating on a budget less than 10 percent that of the Qatar-backed giants.

Though still only a fraction of PSG’s, the club’s current budget is the largest in its history, reflecting its ambition to shine both in the domestic league and on the European stage.

Stripped of inspirational captain Seko Fofana and star striker Lois Openda during the summer transfers, Lens suffered a dreadful start to this season, collecting just one point from the first five league games before battling to a 1-1 draw with Sevilla in their Champions League opener.

Summoning the memory of their glory days, the players will don a special gold shirt against Arsenal, inspired by their jersey from the 2002-3 season, the last time they played in Europe’s top competition.

“On paper, Arsenal are clearly a notch above,” Domenighetti cautioned. “But Lens have always done well in Europe and are certain to put up a fight.”

(With AFP)