“When you have to play every three days, if you want to perform well, you can’t get around by bike. Off the microphone, this employee of a Breton club sums up the dilemma. In 2022, football clubs want to limit their carbon footprint. But PSG is not the only club to use private jets for each trip. Between sporting imperatives and habits, Breton clubs also fly a lot.
1 EA Guingamp: ecology… and savings!
The Costa Rican club is undoubtedly the Breton football club that uses the plane the least. For Ahead, air travel is no longer a generality. For economic rather than ecological reasons, the Ligue 2 club now only travels by air sparingly. Transport by road has even become the rule: the price difference between the two means of transport is indeed very significant.
During the previous exercise, the players of President Fred Le Grand had traveled to Valenciennes by bus, a journey of nearly 13 hours (1,270 km round trip). Ditto for going to Dunkirk (1,300 km round trip). A financial choice, therefore, which is not optimal for professional players for whom the recovery time is fundamental. “After a nine-hour trip to Auxerre last summer, we had two injuries, illustrates a source from Guingamp. The coach is a bit laid out, there are fewer seats, but for a sportsman, it’s not ideal… It’s always better to fly an hour”.
2 Stade Brestois: a question of fatigue and safety
Aware of ecological issues, the Brest Stadium, like many professional clubs, is vigilant about travel. When they can, the inhabitants of Brest thus travel by bus, to go to Rennes, Angers, Nantes or Lorient. The rest of the time, due to the geographical location of Brest, air travel is necessary, with coaches rented on site to then finish the journey from the airport. Important clarification: at no time does the SB29 bus make empty trips across France to pick up its players when they get out of a plane. This is the case for certain French clubs, including Olympique Lyonnais: their bus crosses France without passengers for a 15 or 20 km journey between the airport and the stadium.
But to move by train (difficult mode of transport, to be privatized) or by coach is not as simple as one might think. The notion of recovery and sleep is crucial for top athletes. In addition, having to wait until the day after a match to return home means having to give up a potential “off” day, which can shift recovery days and the training program accordingly.
At the pace at which players are subjected (three games played last week, for example), putting together a program week after week can be complicated. Opting for the train or the bus would add constraints to clubs and footballers.
3 FC Lorient should “take responsibility”
The constraints weighing on FCL are almost the same as those weighing on the rival Brest. Lorient is also out of the way, as Régis Le Bris recalled, this Tuesday, at a press conference: “To go to Ajaccio, Toulouse, there is not too much discussion… Our schedules can make it impossible to use the train or of the bus. Going to Toulouse by coach, from the point of view of recovery, is completely unplayable. »
The trainer therefore believes that “for more distant trips, the plane remains essential. For the quality of the show, for the sequence of performances”. But for other trips: “At FCL, on short trips (Rennes, Brest, Angers, etc.), we use the bus. On intermediate trips, there may be a discussion. In time, the clubs will probably take their responsibilities, I think FC Lorient will. »
