After the Euro 2016 finished three weeks ago, there was all of a sudden no football to watch, talk about. After a few moments of confusion though, the focus soon switched to league football. Here we go again: It is late July and the season kicks off. For Red Star it means getting used to another stadium. While their heart and soul will forever be at Stade Bauer in St-Ouen, the brain and the bureaucrats demand that the club play in a stadium fit for the purpose of Ligue 2. Whaetever this encompasses, it meant that Red Star had to play as far away as Beauvais during the last season, meaning fans had to travel almost 100km to the north of Paris to support their beloved club.

For the new season, the club almost return home. Its origins are in Paris, in fact they played near the Eiffel Tower in their early days before the area became interesting for property developers. The Stade Bauer, just outside Paris in St-Ouen became their new home from 1909. It was the Stade de Paris, dubbed Stade Bauer after the name of the street: rue Dr. Bauer. However, the stadium is in no state to host the prestigious Ligue 2. There is an ongoing debate about where to play in the future or whether to renovate Stade Bauer. The fans prefer the latter and have been campaigning for decades to get their point across. So far, unfortunately, to no avail. Though it seems that there is some re-thinking taking place and the city has offered to participate in the renovations costs. Therefore, Red Star will travel for the foreseeable future. For 2016/17 they are back within the boundaries of Paris and have contemporarily landed in the 16. arrondissement to play at Stade Jean Bouin. This little ground is located directly next to the might Parc des Princes where PSG ply their trade. The ground was built in 1925 and currently holds 20000 people. Originally used by CASG Paris, it is now home to the Rugby club Stade Francais and has been used for the IRB Sevens World Series in 2015/16. Jean Bouin was a long distance runner and won the silver medal at the 1912 Olympics. After a refurbishment in 2010/11 the running track has been removed and the ground is used for playing sports only. In June this year the mayor of Paris and club signed an agreement that their home matches will be played at Stade jean Bouin. Once more, the club are moving as the situation about their ground has been ignored and neglected for too long.

© for the image of Stade Jean Bouin: Liodartois via WikiCommons under CC BY-SA 4.0