Christmas is also made of small unexpected miracles. And in the north of France, before the year closes in the major European leagues, in a mining area hit by unemployment, one has been happening for weeks. Lens, a small city of 32,697 inhabitants, is just one game away from seeing how its team, the pride of the entire region, becomes the winter champion of Ligue 1. An unexpected feat in a competition governed by clubs with enormous economic power such as PSG, teams with a long history, such as Olympique de Marseille, or entities with great work in grassroots football, such as Olympique de Lyon. “It’s true, we are a bit of a Christmas story. But everything responds to a strategy of coherence, work and the alignment of the entire club,” explains Benjamin Parrot, general director of the Racing Club of Lens, by phone.
Lens, owned by the president of Grupo Prisa (publisher of EL PAÍS), Joseph Oughourlian, began the season at a low point. The team was forced to sell some of its main players—such as El Aynaoui, Facundo Medina, Ryan and Andy Diouf, all starters—due to the financial drought in French football, caused largely by the shortage in the distribution of television rights. The team changed its coach (Pierre Sage was signed) and its sports director (Jean-Louis Leca arrived). Parrot himself also landed in the mining city, promoting a meticulous renewal process that combined quality signings at very reasonable prices (no more than seven million euros), important transfers to Rome and Inter Milan and the gradual incorporation of youth players (seven in the first team). The result is an intense team that is very difficult to subdue: three defeats and one draw. And a solitary leader, one point above the almighty PSG and five ahead of Marseille, the third-placed team, and only one game away – the one on January 2 against Toulouse – from being crowned winter champions.
The magnitude of the feat of the Blood and Gold – they are named after the club’s colors, adopted by the Spanish flag – can be deciphered through many angles. The first responds to the importance that the club has in the territory (Upper France region). The Bollaert-Delelis stadium has a capacity for 38,223 people, more than the number of people living in the city itself. “Our motto is to be proud to be from Lens. And you can be from the city, but also from other places. In fact, the average time for fans to get to the stadium is 50 minutes. And that speaks of the interest there is in watching the games,” says Parrot.
The history of Lens, as is the case with only some clubs in Europe, has roots in the love for the territory, the emanation of a strong link with a place with one of the highest unemployment rates in France and in whose city 60% of the population lives in social accommodation. There were more than 60 years of mining exploitation, 4.8 million tons of coal extracted from the wells, 2,500 employees at the time of greatest activity. The conversion was hard. And the department of Pas-de-Calais, also pressured by immigration, has been going through an ideological mutation for years where the extreme right has made its way by exploiting certain social inequalities. The stadium, however, is a free zone where unity around the team is total. “Being from Lens means returning pride to a territory. And knowing our roots, perpetuating our traditions and enhancing our identity gives us strength and is also important for the management of the club,” says Parrot.
The miracle of Lens, or the relevance of that first place (the team only won one championship in the 97-98 season), can be understood through economic figures. Ligue 1 has experienced a long and heavy process of decline in its ability to generate television revenue. Today the money distributed between the clubs is 300 million euros (the Premier League reaches around 2,000 and the League 1,100). Lens owes about 11 million euros, and must compete with other clubs that compensate for that income with the power of their shareholders, such as Paris Saint-Germain itself, second placed.
In this context of absolute scarcity in the distribution of television rights, the club allocates 27 million euros to the salaries of its players, the tenth in salary mass in the entire competition. However, it is fourth in commercial revenue and third in t-shirt sales. Lens, which has a waiting list of 25,000 people to become subscribers to the club, has become a kind of religion for many fans. “Today football companies proliferate, but we are a club. And that means building very strong human synergies. Establishing links that go beyond a contract.”
Next January 2, in Toulouse, these links could certify their success by crowning the team champion of the first round. From then on nothing will stop us from continuing to dream of a title that only three teams – Montpellier in 2012, Monaco in 2017 and Lille in 2021—have managed to challenge PSG in the last 15 years.
