Crazy duel in France
Team travels over 8700 kilometers for cup game
Because Reunionese football club La Tamponnaise have qualified for the next round of the French Cup, they now have to travel 8,700 km for the away game.
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On Monday, the La Tamponnaise team left for France. The Reunion Island team have qualified for the round of 64 in the French Cup and now meet a team from the mainland.
Arguably one of the craziest away trips in football history, the La Tamponnaise side have to travel a whopping 8,755km to play their match in the Round of 64 of the Coupe de France.
But how does such an away game come about? La Temponnaise is a club based in the town of Le-Tampon on the island of La Réunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. The teams of the domestic “D1 Promotionelle” (top soccer league of Réunion) are allowed to play in the French Cup.
And there La Temponnaise writes its very own fairy tale, surviving the first two rounds and making it to the round of 64 for the first time in its history. In this you now meet the Racing Club Grasse, a French fourth division team.
12 hour flight
On Monday, the players and the staff took off towards Paris. The flight to the French capital takes almost 12 hours. Once there, the footballers live in Clarefontaine until Thursday and played a preparatory game against the PSG reserve team on Wednesday evening.
From Thursday they will then move into their quarters in Grasse, where they will finally play for a place in the sixteenth finals at the Stade de la Paoute on Saturday. They would be only the fourth overseas team to reach this round of the French Cup.
And who knows, if the fairy tale of La Temponnaise actually continues, a Ligue 1 team may soon travel 8,755 km to Réunion. (bjl)