“We’re going to spend the holidays with a big smile! “, welcomed RC Lens striker Odsonne Édouard, after his team’s victory against Nice (2-0), Sunday December 14. This fifth consecutive success places the Pas-de-Calais club at the top of Ligue 1, one point ahead of Paris-Saint-Germain. Even if such success is quite unexpected for the Sang et Or, the team has always been able to count on the unfailing support of its supporters.
120 years of history
The Lens Racing Club, which became Lens Racing Club, was formed in 1906. Contrary to popular belief, the team was not created by miners, but by merchants and notables of the city. These representatives of the small bourgeoisie saw in football a tool of social distinction, while the workers of the time rather practiced gymnastics, says the historian Marion Fontaine, in the book The Racing Club of Lens and the black faces.
Originally, the team did not play in red and yellow but in black and green, in reference to the coal from the coal mines and the Place Verte, now Place de la République, where young people played football before creating the club.
Colors with controversial origins
In 1923, RC Lens players wore their famous red and yellow jerseys for the first time. Two legends clash to explain the choice of these colors. For some, red refers to the blood of miners, and gold to coal, a resource so precious to the city of Pas-de-Calais.
But another legend says that Pierre Moglia, president of the club at the time, chose these colors in reference to the flag of Spain, after passing in front of the ruins of the Saint-Léger church, damaged in the 17th century in the conflict between the kingdom of France and its neighbor.
A history linked to that of coal
The working-class identity of RC Lens was forged in 1934, with the takeover of the club by the Société des mines de Lens, probably inspired by the textile industrialists of Roubaix, who financed Excelsior, or by the Peugeot family in Sochaux. The club then begins to play with a professional status, but will suffer the same ups and downs as the coal industry.
At the end of the Second World War, its budget was reduced after the nationalization of the coal mines, and the team was relegated to the second division in 1947. In 1969-1970, while the mining world was in crisis, the team even moved to amateur status. Over the next two decades, the Sang et Or finally managed to survive the slow agony of the mining industry thanks to the generous support of the socialist municipality, led by André Delelis.
Ups…and downs
Like the French team, RC Lens reached the heights in 1998. On May 9, a draw against Auxerre offered the Sang et Or their first title of French champions. This victory allows the Pas-de-Calais team to discover the Champions League… And to leave its mark there. On November 25, the Lensois players beat Arsenal at Wembley Stadium. The RCL thus becomes the first French club to win in London.
In the fall of 2023, the two clubs will face each other again in the Champions League. If the Sang et Or created another feat in the first leg, winning 2-1 at home, the London players put them in their place a few weeks later, beating them 6-0. To date, it is still the biggest defeat of a French club in the Champions League.
The legendary Bollaert-Delelis stadium
“To the north, there were the settlements…” Since 2005, the song by Pierre Bachelet, an artist originally from Paris, has become the anthem of RC Lens. The club’s supporters sing it in the stands of the Bollaert stadium, known for its incomparable atmosphere.
The venue is actually called the Bollaert-Delelis stadium. It owes its name to Félix Bollaert, president of the board of directors of the Mines at the time of the construction of the stadium, in the 1930s, and to André Delelis, the socialist mayor of Lens from 1966 to 1998, who helped the club survive the closure of the mines. Recognized as a historic monument, the Bollaert-Delelis stadium is in the process of being purchased by RC Lens.
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