Football Club Villefranche Beaujolais or simply Villefranche is a French

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club founded in 1927. They are based in

Villefranche-sur-Saône Villefranche-sur-Saône (, ; frp, Velafranche) is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France. It lies 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the river Saône, and is around north of Lyon. The inhabitants of the town are called ''Caladois''. ...

Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes () was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône ...

and play at the Stade Armand Chouffet in town. The team played one season in the second tier of French football during the 1980s. Since the 2018–19 season they play in the

Championnat National The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, ...

, the third tier in the

French football league system The French football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in France and Monaco, and includes one Spanish side. At the top two levels of the system is the Ligue de Football Professionnel, which consists of two pr ...

History

Football Club Villefranche-Beaujolais was formed in 1927, from the football section of multi-sports club Cercle Sportif de Villefranche. The Beaujolais suffix of the name had been applied by 1985, the club being previously known as Football Club Villefranche. The club debuted in the national league structure in 1953 when champions of the Lyonnais region of

Division d'Honneur Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication * Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

they promoted to Division Nationale, the highest tier of amateur football. They maintained this level for five seasons, then relegated in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

. Promotion to the Division Nationale in 1966 would follow when they were Lyonnaise regional champions. They relegated in

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

. In 1970 the club gained access to the Division Nationale for a third time. By successfully remaining in the division, the club became part of the third tier of French football when the FFF reorganised the leagues at the end of the 1970–71 season, taking part in the first edition of Division 3 in 1971. They remained that level until relegated to the regional league in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

. FC Villefranche were founding members in 1978 when the FFF introduced a fourth division to the national league, having finished 6th in the regional Division d'Honneur the previous season. They maintained this level for the season with an 11th place finish. A third place season finish in 1979–80, promoted them to Division 3. In

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

they were promoted to Division 2 although finishing in third place when the two higher placed teams became ineligible for promotion. The club stayed just one season in Division 2, finishing bottom of Group A and being relegated back to Division 3. They remained at that level until finishing bottom of their group in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

, and in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

suffered a second successive relegation back to the regional league. In 1993 the FFF introduced a fifth tier, and the club secured a place in the new National 3 division as champions of the Division Honneur (now the Rhône-Alpes region, after internal restructuring of the French regional leagues). After a fourth place finish in their group in 1994 they secured promotion in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

by finishing second in their group. The club completed three seasons of mid-table finishes before being relegated in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2001. As champions of the Division d'Honneur in 2004, they promoted to CFA2. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, they won their group and were promoted to the fourth tier, CFA. The remained at this level until successfully gaining promotion to

as winners of their group in the 2017–18 season.

Crest

Current squad

References

{{Championnat National Association football clubs established in 1927 1927 establishments in France Sport in Villefranche-sur-Saône Football clubs in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes