Athletico Marseille

Athletico Marseille (formerly Groupe Sportif Consolat and sometimes referred to as Marseille Consolat) is a French amateur football club founded in 1964 and based in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of Marseille. The club was named until 2018 after Consolat, a neighborhood located in La Calade, in the 15th arrondissement, north of Marseille.

History

Founded in 1964 by the residents of Consolat, the club has been run by current club president Jean-Luc Mingallon since 1983. Mingallon pushed the team to success which has led to their promotion from the Division d’Honneur in 1999. In 2006, the club reached the national amateur level of football with its promotion to CFA2. This promotion sparked new derbies with the reserve team of Olympique de Marseille and US Endoume. The desire to become “the second club of Marseille” was one step closer with the promotion to the CFA in 2011. Consolat won the CFA title in 2014, earning promotion to the Championnat National, the third tier of French football. They nearly were promoted to Ligue 2 during the 2015-2016 season, falling short only by a single point behind Amiens SC. They again missed out on possible promotion in the following season, finishing behind division rivals Paris FC due only to goal differential.

In the summer of 2018, Consolat underwent a re-branding process and changed their name to Athletico Marseille.

Despite finishing 5th in the league, Athletico Marseille were relegated to Championnat National 3 in 2019, due to financial issues.

In 2020 the club secured top position in their group when the 2019–20 season ended prematurely, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, on 9 June 2020, the Commission Regionale de Controle des Clubs (CRCC) of the Ligue de Mediterranee announced that the club would be administratively relegated to Regional 2 for financial irregularities. The club appealed, and on 6 July 2020 the appeals committee of the FFF's DNCG overruled this decision, reinstating the club to National 3