Ligue 2: Rodez is renewed, Mbappé's Caen expected, Metz and Lorient as favorites… start of the season this Friday

Le Raf affrontera Ajaccio, ce vendredi. Centre Presse – Jean-Louis Boriès.

Le Stade Malherbe de Caen, dont Kylian Mbappé est devenu cet été actionnaire majoritaire, sera la curiosité de la saison de L2 qui démarre vendredi, sur fond de grève des supporters en guerre contre la programmation des matches en semaine au lieu du week-end.

Caen will start on Saturday at home against Paris FC (14h30), the fifth of last season, but we will have to wait until the end of the transfer window to have a clearer idea of ​​the ambitions of the Normandy club.

The two main recruits for the moment are the former international Yann M’Vila (22 caps in the French team), who returns to France at 34 from West Bromwich Albion, and Lorenzo Rajot, a midfielder who arrived from Rodez.

Wave of departures at the Raf

Doing as well as last year will be the complicated task of Rodez Aveyron Football for its seventh consecutive season in Ligue 2. The Aveyronnais had a magnificent season last year with a fourth place in the standings and a defeat against Saint-Etienne (0-2) in the final stages.
The Ruthénois d&énois start their season, this Friday (8 p.m.), in Ajaccio, with a squad that has evolved a lot. Raf has lost to cope with the departures of key players such as Danger (Red Star), Rajot (Caen), Raux-Yao (Vienne), or Buades (Valenciennes). As for the arrivals, we will note that of the Lensois hopeful Ibrahima Baldé.

The Stade Malherbe project with Mbappé, who now holds 80% of the club's shares, is a long-term one. But there is no way to say yet whether the Normans will be among the favorites this season.

Logically, the most anticipated teams will be Lorient and Metz, relegated from Ligue 1. The two teams play Monday at 8:45 p.m. The Merlus move to Martigues while the Lorraines welcome Bastia.

These two will aim for at least the Top 5, which leaves a chance of moving up, either directly for the first two, or through the play-offs, which offer a team the possibility of meeting the 16th of L1 in the up/down jump-off. For Metz, as for Caen, the situation will be clearer at the end of the transfer window.

The Croix de Lorraine club had to part with its strong forces during the summer (Mikautadze, Camara, Jean Jacques, N’Doram), and the supporters are impatiently waiting to know who will compensate for these departures.

Lorient is armed

Lorient, for its part, is moving forward with more conviction. President Loïc Ferry announced at the end of last season his intention to "return with a solid organization and an ambitious project to exist well in Ligue 2 and move up very quickly".

To do this, he recruited Corsican coach Olivier Pantaloni, an experienced technician who has two climbs to L1 under his belt, with Ajaccio in 2011 then again in 2022.< /p>

Nouvelle saison, nouveau ballon. 🆕⚽️

🤝 @decath_football @Decathlon pic.twitter.com/1j8RtCKIWh

— Ligue 2 BKT (@Ligue2BKT) August 15, 2024

Pantaloni brought in his luggage goalkeeper Benjamin Leroy, whom he had made his starter at Ajaccio for four seasons. Leroy was notably named best L2 goalkeeper in 2022.

The second reinforcement announced for Lorient is Bandiougou Fadiga, a midfielder trained at Paris SG, who came from Olympiakos. The first days of the championship promise to be tense.

"Strike" of the animations

The decision of the LFP, in agreement with the broadcaster BeIN Sports, to play a majority of matches on Friday and Monday, is not going down well with the supporters.

The fan associations have announced a "strike" of all their entertainment in the stands, as well as actions aimed at disrupting the broadcasting of matches, until negotiations are concluded with the League and the television channel.

In addition, the League has decided not to introduce VAR in L2 this season, in the interests of economy following the drop in TV rights.

L2 will have to learn to live this season without one of its flagship clubs, the Girondins de Bordeaux, a historic monument of French football administratively relegated to National 2 (fourth division) after being placed in receivership.

The club of Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana, Zinédine Zidane or Yoann Gourcuff finished 12th in Ligue 2 last season, but his financial difficulties forced him to disappear, temporarily?, from the French professional football scene.