Official | Angers relegated to Ligue 2 | OneFootball

Angers’ relegation to Ligue 2 is now confirmed following their away 4-2 loss at Rennes on Sunday for Ligue 1 gameweek 33. Angers needed a win at the Roazhon Park in order to delay the inevitable. The Alexandre Dujeux-led side had opened the scoring courtesy of a Nabil Bentaleb penalty. Rennes then went 2-1 up thanks to Amine Gouiri and an own goal from Cedric Hountondji. Angers’ Ibrahima Niane restored parity, but Jérémy Doku scored a game-winning brace in the second half.

With 18 points away from safety with five Ligue 1 games left to play, Angers can’t pull off the impossible escape from Ligue 2. Les Scoïstes will now play for the sole objective to not finish dead last. To make matters worse for the Anjou outfit, FIFA has handed them a transfer ban over the next two windows over a dispute with Espérance de Tunis over the free transfer of full-back Ilyes Chetti last summer. Chetti is currently suspended by his club for a month after he was handed a four-month suspended prison sentence for sexual assault.

Angers have indicated that they intend to appeal the transfer ban through the Court of Arbitration for Sport. As pointed out by Ouest-France, the team will be desperate to avoid a ban this summer, given they have 16 players leaving at the end of their contracts, and a team to rebuild after relegation to Ligue 2.

GFFN | Bastien Cheval