Toulouse Football Club was a French association football

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...

playing in the city of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, Haute-Garonne. The team was founded in 1937 and disappeared in 1967, in a merger with

Red Star Olympique Red Star Football Club, also known simply as Red Star (), is a French association football club founded in Paris in 1897, and is the fourth oldest French football club, after Standard AC of Paris, Le Havre AC and Girondins de Bordeaux. In t ...

. Even though this team held the same name as Toulouse's current main club (

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club is French professional football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the premier division of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse lo ...

), the two teams are not to be confused, as they are not a continuation of each other.

History

Toulouse Football Club was founded on 20 March 1937 and began in Division 2. The club finished second in the South Group of 1945–46 French Division 2 season and were promoted to Division 1 almost a decade after its foundation. Toulouse finished in 14th position in its first campaign in the top tier of French football. Following four mid-table finishes, TFC claimed fourth spot in 1949–50 French Division 1 season, the club's then highest position. However the club suffered a major downturn the following season when they finished 17th, being relegated to Division 2 in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

. However, ''Le Téfécé'' were to win their first title by claiming the Division 2 in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

, being promoted to the top-flight. This success was followed by the club's

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

triumph in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

. It was TFC's first and last major honour. Toulouse coped with this lack of title success by assuring themselves as a Division 1 mainstay, regularly finishing in the top half of the table after their return to the top flight (including a 2nd spot in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

, the club's best finish ever). In season 1960–61, Toulouse took part in the newly born

Anglo-Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup The Anglo-Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup was a short-lived Inter-League football competition organised by the French Football Federation that would see teams from the Football League and the Scottish Football League, Scottish League compete agai ...

, losing 6–2 on aggregate to

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

. At the beginning of season 1961–62, Jean-Baptiste Doumeng (the 'red millionaire') became club president. Under his presidency, Toulouse reached fifth place in season 1963–1964. On 16 June 1964,

Kader Firoud Abdelkader Firoud (October 11, 1919 in Oran, Algeria – April 3, 2005 in Nîmes, France), most commonly known as Kader Firoud, was a French-Algerian professional football midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in associati ...

, who had played for the club during wartime, became club coach. After a season of transition (1964–65) at the end of which the club finished in eleventh place in the league table, Firoud having devised a hyper-defensive playing style, Toulouse attained a remarkable fourth place in the following season, which gave them entry to the Fairs Cities Cup for season 1966–67. That same season, in the Coupe de France, after having successively eliminated Angoulême, FC Gueugnon, Olympique Lyonnais and FC Sochaux, the Red and Whites met RC Strasbourg in the semi-final. Lining up alongside the likes of Baraffe, Dorsini and Jacky Bernard, Soukhane opened the scoring for Toulouse in the 11th minute, before going into goal after his teammate, T.F.C. goalkeeper Devis, had been sent off. Strasbourg took advantage of their numerical superiority to score and take the tie into extra-time in the last few seconds of play, before scoring two further goals to kill off Toulousain hopes of reaching the final. The following season, Toulouse were drawn to meet the Romanian club Dinamo Pitești in the first round of the Fairs Cities' Cup. T.F.C. won the first leg 3–0 in front of a remarkably small home crowd of just 5 000 spectators. In the second leg, however, Dinamo Pitești brought the aggregate score back to 4–4 in the space of nine minutes (Toulouse having scored an important away goal). T.F.C.'s hopes of getting through to the next round were ended by a late goal from Mihai Țurcan. This was to be T.F.C.'s last season. President Doumeng sought badly-needed finance for the club from a large number of hoped-for backers (including the town hall), but it was all in vain. The club was to move its operations to Saint-Ouen in 1967, thus allowing Red Star, then languishing in the second division, back into the top tier. Thus, Toulouse lost its beloved T.F.C., and professional football in the 'Pink City' was lost until 1979. Despite the controversy caused by this merger, it would be several years before the French football authorities voted for legislation which would limit the distance between merging football clubs under its jurisdiction. A new club, Union Sportive de Toulouse, was founded in 1970; this club became

in 1977.

Honours

in 1957 * Division 1 runner-up in 1955 (5th in 1960) * Division 2 in 1953

Toulouse in Europe

Managerial history

* Pierre Cazal 1937–? *

Jean Batmale Jean Batmale (18 September 1895 – 3 June 1973) was a French footballer who played as a midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, ...

? * Giuseppe Zilizzi ? * Henri Cammarata 1945–1947 * Edmond Enée 1947–1952 * Charles Nicolas 1952–1953 *

Jules Bigot Jules Bigot (22 October 1915, Bully-les-Mines, Pas-de-Calais – 24 October 2007) was a French football player and manager. He played club football most notably with Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the ...

1953–1958 * René Pleimelding 1958–1961 * Léon Deladerrière 1961–1964 *

1964–1967

References

External links

History
{{Authority control Association football clubs established in 1937 Association football clubs disestablished in 1967 Defunct football clubs in France Sport in Toulouse 1937 establishments in France 1967 disestablishments in France