Reims finally returns to Ligue 1

And yet it is 50 years since Stade de Reims last won a major trophy.

Nowadays, most people only associate Reims, the city 150km to the northeast of Paris, with champagne production, but there was a time when the local football team was as significant a label across the continent as Taittinger or Mumm.

The purveyors of champagne football in the post-war years in France, before the modern day superpower Paris Saint-Germain even existed, Reims is finally back in the top flight after an absence of 33 years.

And it begins the new season with a home clash against Marseille, the club that went one better than Reims and won the European Cup in 1993.

There will not be a spare seat among the 21,500 at the Stade Auguste Delaune for this weekend's opening game, which will bring back memories of days gone by for Reims fans of a certain vintage.

The years 1945-1963 are remembered as 'La Grande Epoque', when Reims dominated the French game and became one of the first European giant, thanks in large part to Albert Batteux.

Batteux captained the team to the title in 1949 and the French Cup in 1950 before becoming coach.

It was he who signed stars such as Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine as he led Reims to glory in the league five times in 10 seasons from 1953-1962.

There was a triumph in the Latin Cup, the forerunner to the European Cup, with a final victory against AC Milan, and a run to the final of the first European Cup in 1956, when it found itself 2-0 up after 10 minutes against Real Madrid at the Parc des Princes before losing 4-3.

It reached the European Cup final once again in 1959, but again came unstuck against Madrid, going down 2-0 in Stuttgart.

But, having built one of the most stylish sides in French football history, Batteux was sacked in 1963, and went on to win four more league titles as coach of St Etienne.

Reims was never the same again, although it was a consistent top-flight presence in the 1970s, when Argentine striker Carlos Bianchi scored an incredible 107 goals in four seasons.

It has not quite risen from the ashes, but Reims did almost disappear in the early 1990s, when its financial predicament saw it relegated to the sixth tier.

So desperate was the club's plight that it was forced to sell relics and trophies won in its heyday just to raise funds to stay in business, but five promotions in the subsequent 20 years have taken Reims back into the top flight at last.

The current team, coached by former Lyon defender Hubert Fournier, lacks stars of the calibre of Kopa, Fontaine or Bianchi, but defender Anthony Weber says Reims is hoping to hit the ground running.

"We know how important our start to the season will be and, like last year, we want to get as many points on the board early on as possible," he says, with fixtures against the likes of Montpellier, St Etienne and PSG to come in the opening two months of the campaign.

"We haven't the strength nor the experience of our rivals, so we will have to compensate for that with spirit and determination."

Avoiding relegation is the modest aim in this first season back, although Fournier wants his men to follow the example set by their illustrious predecessors and leave their mark.

"Of course we need to make sure we stay in Ligue 1 but we also need to live up to the high standards set by this club in terms of image and behaviour," says Fournier.

"We still represent the name of Stade de Reims, and all the history that goes with that."