Grenoble Foot 38, commonly referred to as simply Grenoble or GF38, is a French association football club based in Grenoble. The club plays its home matches at the Stade des Alpes, a sports complex based in the heart of the city, and wears white and blue.
The original incarnation of the club was founded in 1911 and, in 1997, was formed into the club that exists today as a result of a merger. Grenoble currently plays in Ligue 2, the second level of French football, after having gone into bankruptcy and relegation to the fifth level of French football in 2011.
History
The club was founded in 1911 as Football Club de Grenoble. In 1997, a merger of Olympique Grenoble Isère and Norcap Olympique led to the Grenoble Foot 38 incarnation. Olympique Grenoble Isère played in Ligue 1 in the 1960–61 and 1962–63 seasons.
In 2004, Grenoble Foot was acquired by Index Holdings, a Japanese mobile software company, therefore becoming the first French football club to have foreign owners. The price of the deal was around €2 million.[1][2] The new owners invested in the Stade des Alpes, a new ground with an initial capacity of 20,000 which opened in February 2008.[3] Grenoble finished the 2007–08 Ligue 2 season in third place, thus returning to Ligue 1 for the first time since 1963.
In the 2008–09 Ligue 1 season, Grenoble finished 13th.[2] However, after losing their first eleven games of the following season, they were eventually relegated with six games remaining amidst severe financial problems.[4][5] In the same season, Grenoble reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France for the only time, defeating Monaco 2–0 at home in the quarter-finals on 18 March 2009,[6] and losing by a single goal to Rennes in the semi-finals on 21 April.[7]
The professional football club was liquidated in July 2011 with debts of €2.9 million, and relegated administratively to Championnat de France Amateur 2, the fifth tier.[8][9] Index provided false financial statements during their ownership of the club.[2][10]
