Chaos in the Côte d’Azur: Nice Faces Relegation After Ineos Era Crumbles

The final whistle had barely gone when the anger burst. Nice’s ultras poured from the stands, stormed the pitch, and the players sprinted for the tunnel. Staff followed. Security scrambled. A season that began with dreams of Champions League football ended in a scene that felt closer to a club tearing itself apart.

This is what remains of Ineos’ grand project on the Riviera.

Nice, who started the campaign in Champions League qualifiers, now face a two-legged relegation playoff against Saint-Étienne later this month after a goalless home draw with already-doomed Metz on the final day. Fail there, and a club bought for €100m in 2019 with the stated aim of challenging PSG will be playing in Ligue 2.

For Ineos, who are trying to sell and walk away, the timing could hardly be worse. For Nice’s fans, it is simply the grim, logical end to years of frustration.

A Simple Task, Botched Completely

All Nice had to do was win a home league game. Just one. Something they had not managed since 29 October.

They were handed the softest opponent imaginable. Metz were already relegated, with only three league wins all season. None of those had come under Benoît Tavenot, appointed in January and still searching for a first victory of the campaign with any club. His year’s record across Metz and Bastia: no wins, nine draws, 18 defeats, two relegations. A nightmare in numbers.

Nice still couldn’t beat them.

“Get your arses into gear,” the home fans chanted before kick-off. The mood in the Allianz Riviera was strange even then – a cocktail of fury, resignation and a flicker of celebration. One banner ordered: “Everyone to Paris,” a nod to Friday’s Coupe de France final against Lens at the Stade de France. A huge tifo honoured captain Dante, who had hoped this would be his farewell on home turf before retiring at 42.

Any sense of occasion vanished quickly. The anger swallowed everything.

The cup final, once a highlight, now feels like a sideshow. Nice co-president Jean-Pierre Rivère admitted as much, saying the Coupe de France is “no longer a priority at all”. Survival comes first. Just as it did for Reims last season, when they lost the cup final to PSG and then fell to Metz in the relegation playoff. Yehvann Diouf, who played in all three of those matches before joining Nice in the summer, has seen this script before. He will be desperate not to live it again.

Investment Dries Up, Squad Falls Apart

The warning signs were there, but few expected the collapse to be this dramatic.

The club’s pre-season objectives were deliberately vague. A “return to Europe” was mentioned, but no one wanted to say which competition out loud. With Ineos turning their attention to Manchester United, the money slowed to a trickle. The squad paid the price.

Key players left. Evann Guessand and Marcin Bulka were sold. Their replacements did not measure up. Kevin Carlos, brought in to fill Guessand’s role, has yet to score a league goal. Potential recruits looked elsewhere; Mahdi Camara chose Rennes over Nice.

Franck Haise saw the problems early. In autumn, he complained he did not have the players to fight for Europe. Then he went further: he said he simply could not “create a group” from this squad. The fanbase, already simmering, boiled over. Most of the anger landed on the players, but sporting director Florian Maurice was heavily criticised, and so was Fabrice Bocquet, who briefly took over as president from Rivère.

The situation turned toxic in November. Terem Moffi and Jérémie Boga were attacked by supporters as they stepped off the team bus at the training ground after a defeat at Lorient. Both players later left the club. Bocquet soon followed them out. By the end of the year, Haise was gone too.

Puel’s Return, and a Club Unravels

Rivère’s response was to turn back the clock and bring in Claude Puel. It has been a disaster.

Rivère believed Haise had lost his edge, and the two agreed to part ways in December. Puel’s record since then: two league wins in 18 games. His tactical choices and team selections have been savaged by supporters and pundits alike. The numbers back them up.

Yet the problems run deeper than one man on the touchline. As the drab draw with Metz drifted on, the Allianz Riviera was drowned in boos. They rose and fell, but never really stopped. It became almost impossible to tell who they were aimed at.

The answer felt simple: everyone.

By half-time, the tension had a shape. The ultras moved from the second tier down towards the first. No one believed they were after a better view. When the game ended without a goal, the dam burst. They poured onto the pitch. Around the stadium, trouble continued late into the night. Staff, guests and journalists were kept inside until after midnight for safety.

Puel tried to show understanding, saying the supporters’ “disappointment is legitimate”. Rivère called for “unity”. The words felt small against the scale of the fracture.

Talks with potential buyers are ongoing. If Ineos sell this summer, they will leave behind a club in open revolt, a team one bad tie away from relegation, and a fanbase that no longer trusts anyone in charge.

Nantes Implode, “Coach Vahid” Bows Out

Nice were not the only club to watch their own supporters invade the pitch.

In Nantes, the chaos came even earlier. Already relegated, they hosted Toulouse on the final day, but the match lasted just 22 minutes. The club’s owners stayed away, fearing trouble. They were right. Ultras hurled ominous black flares and then flooded onto the pitch in huge numbers.

Players, officials, staff – all sprinted for the dressing rooms. One man stayed.

Vahid Halilhodzic stood his ground, facing supporters, many masked in balaclavas. He pleaded with them, then finally walked down the tunnel, anguish and sadness etched across his face. Later he said: “In the 40 years of my career as a player and then a manager, I have never experienced that. It will be deeply engraved in my memory.”

He confirmed it will be his last memory in football. An extraordinary, bitter final act for “Coach Vahid”.

PSG’s Title Party in a Makeshift Corner

Elsewhere, the images were striking for very different reasons.

In the Paris derby, PSG arrived as newly crowned Ligue 1 champions after clinching the title with a midweek win over Lens. They had planned to lift the trophy after facing Paris FC on Sunday night.

Paris FC had other ideas.

The hosts, having just secured their own safety in Ligue 1, had their post-match celebrations planned and were in no mood to hand over the stage. PSG were forced to improvise, erecting a small stand in front of the away end before kick-off to stage their title ceremony.

It looked odd. Small. Almost sheepish. A subdued coronation for a club that measures itself by what happens in Europe, not at home.

Luis Enrique has already said his mind is on the Champions League final against Arsenal. His team played like it. PSG slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Paris FC, a result that meant nothing in the table but underlined where their priorities lie.

Nice, by contrast, would give anything right now for a game that meant nothing. Instead they head into a cup final with their thoughts drifting to Saint-Étienne, to the playoff, to the abyss just below them.

For a club once sold the dream of catching PSG, the question now is far more brutal: can they even stay in the same division?