Club information | ||
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Full name | Football Club de Lézignan |
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Nickname(s) | Sangliers | |
Website | Official site | |
Colours | white, green and pink | |
Founded | 1903 | |
Current details | ||
Ground(s) |
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Chairman | Alain Fabre, Jacques Laguens, Christian Lapalu | |
Coach | Aurélien Cologni | |
Competition | Elite One Championship | |
2015/16 | 3rd | |
Uniforms | ||
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Football Club de Lézignan (or Lézignan Sangliers as they are often referred) are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Lézignan-Corbières in the départment of Aude in the south of France. They play in the Elite One Championship. They have won seven French Championship titles and six Lord Derby Cups.
The club was founded in 1903. In 1939 the club switched codes and began playing rugby league after the success the code began having in the country in the early 1930s with the formation of the French championship in 1934. In the 2007-08 season the club, led by their French international player-coach James Wynne, won the French Championship for the first time in 30 years. They also reached the fourth round of the Challenge Cup. They currently play in the Elite One Championship. They play at the Stade du Moulin and are currently coached by former French international and coach Aurelien Cologni
In 1893 Joseph Anglade a university professor practised a game called football with students on a ground they called 'Belle Isle'. The game was a mixture of football and rugby, very similar to what is now 'Australian Football' On the back of this a student called Lucien Mountain in 1903 founded the original rugby club 'Football Club Lezignanais'. In 1919 after 14 years playing in the hospital grounds the club moved their own ground to the Stade du Moulin then called the Stadium of the Mill. In 1921 the club competed in the French Rugby Union Championship for the first time and in 1929 they reached the final but were beaten by US Quillan. Disheartened by rugby in France at this time the club was dissolved in 1931 after they had been threatened with a ban from entering the competition due to financial payments.