Racing Club Calais is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

, France. It was founded in 2023 from a merger of Grand Calais Pascal FC and Calais FC Hauts-de-France. As of the 2024–25 season, it competes in the

Championnat National 3 The Championnat National 3, commonly referred to as simply National 3 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur 2, is a football league competition. The league serves as the fifth division of the French football league system behind ...

, the fifth tier of

French football Association football is the most popular sport in France. In 2024, 53% of people in France declared an interest in football, with 26% being very interested. The French Football Federation (FFF, Fédération Française de Football) is the natio ...

History

In 2017,

Calais RUFC Calais Racing Union FC (Calais RUFC) was a French football club based in Calais, France. Calais RUFC was founded in 1974 after a merger of two local clubs and, as an amateur club, reached the 2000 Coupe de France Final which it lost to top-flig ...

ceased operations due to financial issues. Among the successor clubs in the city were Calais FC Hauts-de-France and Grand Calais Pascal FC. In 2023, the two clubs merged to create a new club called Racing Club Calais. The first team would start in the

Régional 1 The Régional 1, formerly Division d'Honneur or Honneur Ligue is the common generic name for the highest level football league competitions run by each of the 13 Regional Leagues in France. Together, these league competitions serve as the six ...

, the sixth tier of

, where Grand Calais Pascal FC had been playing prior to the merger. On 18 November 2023, in the seventh round of the

2023–24 Coupe de France The 2023–24 Coupe de France was the 107th season of the main football cup competition of France. The competition was organised by the French Football Federation (FFF) and is open to all clubs in French football, as well as clubs from the overse ...

, Calais secured a 2–1 victory over ESC Longueau thanks to

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

goals from Claudio Beauvue and Axel Prohouly, setting up a match against

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

side

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

in the following round. In the match on 9 December, Calais took the lead in the eleventh minute thanks to a goal from Redwan Aboukassem, but were unable to hold the result, with Caen scoring four goals in the second half, including three after the 80th minute, to win 4–1. At the end of the 2023–24 Régional 1 season, Calais finished first in Group C, advancing to the promotion play-offs against the other group winners. They went on to defeat both and

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

in penalty shoot-outs to secure

football.

Players

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calais, Racing Club 2023 establishments in France Association football clubs established in 2023 Racing Club Calais Football clubs in Hauts-de-France