Stade Marcel Picot

The stadium has been standing since 1926, though almost nothing above the pitch dates back that far. It first opened as the Stade du Parc des Sports du Pont d'Essey, and locals also knew it as the Stade de l'Université. The club settled on the name it keeps now, honouring Marcel Picot, a businessman and backer of the club who died in October 1967.

What sets Marcel Picot apart from most French grounds its size is the pitch itself: GrassMaster, a hybrid surface stitching synthetic fibres into natural turf, laid down in 2010 and still in use. The full rebuild that gave the stadium its current shape closed out in 2003, trimming capacity down from the roughly 25,000 it held after the first reconstruction to the 20,087 it seats today. A plan floated to push that number up towards 35,000 for Euro 2016 never got off the ground, and the stadium stayed at its post-2003 size.

The record for a full house here goes back to 16 September 1976, when 30,384 packed in for Nancy against Saint-Étienne. That mark belongs to a different era of the ground, though; since the rebuild, the closest anyone has come is 19,064, set on 19 May 2023 for a Championnat National fixture against Le Puy.

The stadium's most-told story has nothing to do with league football. On 23 May 1988, it hosted a testimonial match built around Michel Platini, with Diego Maradona and Pelé both turning out on the pitch — an evening that still gets mentioned in Nancy long after the game itself has been forgotten.