Alain Orsoni & AC Ajaccio: Rise, Fall & Controversy

Former president of Athletic Club Ajaccio (ACA), Alain Orsoni died this Monday at the age of 71, shot dead in the village of Vero, in Southern Corsica, during his mother’s funeral in the middle of the afternoon. A Corsican nationalist activist, he led the ACA, a historic football club on the Isle of Beauty, between 2008 and 2015 then between 2022 and July 2023.

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Corsica: ex-nationalist leader Alain Orsoni shot dead at his mother’s funeral

Already targeted by an assassination attempt in the summer of 2008, Alain Orsoni had taken over the presidency of AC Ajaccio a few months earlier, succeeding his friend Michel Moretti, a former nationalist who committed suicide on March 31, 2008 while suffering from cancer. Orsoni, former leader of the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC) and founder of the Movement for Self-Determination (MPA), then returned to the island after having left it in 1996 to live in exile for 13 years, in Florida, Nicaragua then in Spain.

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Rise to Ligue 1 and recruitment of Adrian Mutu

During its first mandate (2008-2015), the ACA rose to Ligue 1 at the end of the 2010/2011 season, remaining there until its relegation to Ligue 2 during the 2013/2014 financial year. This period of sporting success allowed the club, alongside the first team, to open its approved training center. Olivier Pantaloni, Alex Dupont, Albert Emon, Fabrizio Ravanelli… Several well-known names in French football were also on the Ajaccian bench under Orsoni’s presidency.

In the summer of 2012, the rival of SC Bastia had especially attracted attention by attracting Romanian star Adrian Mutu during the transfer window, notably with Chelsea, Juventus Turin and Fiorentina. The Romanian striker, scorer of 11 goals in 37 matches at Ajaccio (until January 2014), played alongside players who had worked in Ligue 1 (Guillermo Ochoa, Benjamin André, Andy Delort, Dennis Oliech, Paul Lasne, Ronald Zubar…). Proof that, on the pitch, the White and Red were doing rather well.

But Alain Orsoni’s seven-year term was nevertheless turbulent off the pitch. In June 2009, he was arrested as part of the investigation into the wave of assassinations in Corsica in the world of organized crime. Heard in particular for the murder of Thierry Castola, whom he had worked with in Latin America in the 90s, the president of the ACA at the time was released following a 36-day hunger strike. In 2012, he published A Corsican destiny: the fiery maquis, first volume of his memoirs, evoking the assassination of his brother Guy Orsoni, killed on June 17, 1983.

“Media lynching” and “permanent suspicion”

After three seasons in the elite, AC Ajaccio was relegated to the second division in 2014. A few months later, in March 2015, Alain Orsoni resigned as president, leaving it to Léon Luciani. Following a stint as vice-president, the former manager returned to the helm of the club until July 2023. His team, once again coached by Olivier Pantaloni, had then just experienced a descent into Ligue 2 after its rise to the elite a year earlier.

Meanwhile, in 2018, while he was still on the board of directors of the Professional Football League (LFP), Alain Orsoni left his position, deploring a “media lynching” following incidents surrounding a Ligue 2 match between Ajaccio and Le Havre (the Le Havre team’s bus was stoned when it arrived at the stadium). The former nationalist activist said he had “the inner conviction” to be a victim “of a permanent suspicion relating to this famous Corsican context so deeply and so unfairly anchored in people’s minds.”

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Alain Orsoni at Le Figaro in 2012: “I’m not afraid of dying…”

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Today, Athletic Club Ajaccio (ACA) – which filed for bankruptcy last summer before the DNCG following its season in National (12th place) – plays in Regional 2 within the Corsican Football League. Andy Delort and his teammates are leaders of their championship ahead of the Borgo 2 team.