FC Metz
association football club based in Metz, Lorraine, France

Football Club de Metz (French pronunciation: [mɛs] ) is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. Founded in 1932, the club competes in the Ligue 2, following relegation from the Ligue 1 in the 2025-26 season. They play their home matches at Stade Saint-Symphorien located within the city. The team is currently managed by Luc Holtz. Despite never winning the top flight, they have won the Coupe de France twice and the Coupe de la Ligue twice.
History
Metz was founded on 23 March 1932 by the amalgamation of two amateur athletic clubs, and shortly thereafter became a professional team; it is one of the oldest professional football teams in France. Its roots trace back further, to the SpVgg Metz club, formed in 1905 when the city of Metz was part of the German Empire. SpVgg played in the tier-one Westkreis-Liga for a season in 1913–14, before the outbreak of the First World War stopped all play. Some players of this club were part of the Cercle Athlétique Messin in 1919, which went on to become FC Metz in 1932. Messin was a leading club in the Division d'Honneur – Lorraine, taking out league titles in 1920, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1929 and 1931.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “FC Metz” is association football club based in Metz, Lorraine, France. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Metz, association and football, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “association football club based in Metz, Lorraine, France” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q221525. VIAF identifies the subject as 267653637. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2025, 1905 and 1913.
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This entry incorporates text from “FC Metz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.