FC Sochaux: when Peugeot told News Tank Football why & how they wanted to sell the club

"We have rationalised our marketing investments and refocused them on tools that enable us to highlight Stellantis' technology and electrification technology in particular: that's why we now have a strong presence in motorsport, thanks to Formula E, the World Championship for electric vehicle racing," explained Carlos Tavares, CEO of the Stellantis group, on France Inter on 26/07/2023.

This was his justification for the sale of FC Sochaux-Montbéliard to a mysterious Chinese group, Ledus, which was made official on 06/07/2015 by the PSA Peugeot Citroën group, which Carlos Tavares had just joined.

This marked the end of the car manufacturer's long-standing links with the club dating back to 1928, when FCSM was founded by two workers with the support of director Jean-Pierre Peugeot.

In 2014, Denis Worbe, a senior executive in charge of finance for the PSA Peugeot-Citroën Group at the time, was given the task of cutting the cord between Peugeot and FC Sochaux, a club that had been organised as a public limited company (SASP) since December 2000 and which was then 99% owned by Peugeot and…