reporter Thierry Roland said on live TV that "the cup [was] leaving France", a comment that was deemed offensive by many in Alsace. In 1968, Racing started a process that would eventually lead to a merger with two other clubs, the "Association Sportive Culturelle de la Meinau" and, most importantly, the CS des Pierrots 1922 Strasbourg. The merger was effective in 1970 and the new entity was named "Le Racing Pierrots Strasbourg Meinau", or RPSM. The Pierrots were then a very successful amateur team – they won the national amateur championship in 1969 and 1970—but lacked sufficient structures to jump to professional play while Racing was more wealthy but in search for talent. The merger thus appeared as an excellent opportunity to build a powerful football club in Strasbourg and was favoured by business and political circles. However, the wedding was a difficult one with many internal struggles that were evidenced when some of the former Pierrots left the new entity as soon as 1971 to re-found their former club. That same year, the RPSM was relegated despite the arrival at the end of the season of Yugoslavian star Ivica Osim. As usual, Strasbourg then won immediate promotion with Osim and two French internationals in its ranks: Jean-Noël Huck and Marc Molitor. Back in division 1 in 1972, the club made one of the biggest transfer blunders in its history: Osim was sent to Sedan to leave a foreign player spot for Reinhard Libuda. The Yugoslavian left Strasbourg in tears but helped Sedan to decent results while Libuda was quickly suspended due to a match fixing scandal in Germany and eventually released in March 1973. In 1976, the club was again relegated and went back to its old identity as Racing Club de Strasbourg, reflecting the final failure of the RPSM merger. Glorious years (1976–1980) In 1976, the future seemed somewhat dark for Racing: the club had been relegated for the second time in only four years, was torn apart by internal struggles following the failure of the merger and was desperately seeking municipal subventions to reach a balanced budget. Financial difficulties meant that Racing was unable to retain or replace its best players (Huck, Molitor, Gress, Hausser, Spiegel) who left for other clubs or retired. This impossibility to buy on the transfer market meant that, for the first time, Strasbourg had to rely essentially on players out of its