Toulouse FC

Le Téfécé, Les Pitchouns or Les Violets (phylacteries). These are all nicknames of this football club. The last one also tells us that the club's colour is purple. You will find it on the jerseys in combination with white (home jerseys) or black (away jerseys). The Stadium de Tolouse is their shrine and currently holds 33,150 fans after all the renovations.

The main rivalry here is with Girondins de Bordeaux, the club they play in the famous Derby de la Garonne. These matches are named after the Garonne River, on the course of which are the towns that are home to both clubs.

Milestones and historical background

The club's headquarters are in the town of the same name, Tolouse, in south-western France. It was founded in 1970, so it is a relatively young team compared to most other clubs in the league. However, Tolouse is not a county town, so of course Tolouse FC had a football team before that, since 1937. The latter won the French Cup in 1957.

However, a decade later, in 1967, it sold its players and licence to Red Star and the town was left without a league representative. However, three years later, in the aforementioned 1970, Union Sportive Toulouse rose from the ashes. It began its journey in Ligue 2, and from 1979 onwards with the old name of Tolouse FC.

In 1982, they won promotion to Ligue 1. The club, which had players like Jacques Santini or Swiss forward Daniel Jeandupeux, won the famous penalty shootout against Diego Maradona's Napoli in the 1986/87 UEFA Cup.

However, the club later failed to set a clear direction, relegated to Ligue 2 in 1994. Financial problems and a 3rd league finish also followed. Today, the club is playing Ligue 1 again, but it is at the bottom of the table, and above all struggling to stay up.