Brighton & Hove Albion’s pre-season training camp in France has been thrown into chaos — by helicopter landings for the recent G7 summit ruining pitches they intended to use.
Fabian Hurzeler’s squad were due to be based at the Hotel Royal Resort in the spa town of Evian-les-Bains close to the border with Switzerland from Thursday July 23 until Saturday August 1, using pitches located nearby.
The pitches became landing grounds when U.S President Donald Trump, former UK prime minister Keir Starmer, president of France Emmanuel Macron and fellow heads of state flew in by helicopter for the G7 summit in June to discuss issues such as AI regulation, climate change and economic security.
An initial group of club staff sent out on Wednesday to prepare the camp for the arrival of Hurzeler and his players reported back that the pitches are unusable.
The camp has been abandoned, a friendly against French Ligue 2 side Annecy on Saturday has been cancelled and club officials have arranged at short notice an alternative camp in Austria. A second friendly against Ligue 1 opponents Strasbourg, scheduled for August 1, will go ahead as planned.
According to a club source, granted anonymity to protect relationships, Brighton were not satisfied with the pitch facilities at the venue, due to unforeseen circumstances.
The squad trained at their Lancing headquarters today and will play an in-house game behind closed doors on Saturday before travelling to Austria on Sunday. The change of plans is said to have caused minimal impact.
Pre-season camps are usually outsourced, but Brighton made their own arrangements for the trip to France. The abandonment of plans has thrown off course preparations for a hectic start to the 2025-26 campaign. They have home friendlies against Italian Serie A sides Roma on August 8 and Bologna on August 15.
That is followed by the first leg of the Europa Conference League play-offs round on August 20 against opponents to be discovered when the draw takes place on August 3. The opening Premier League fixture at home to Aston Villa is on August 23, the second leg in the Conference League play-offs is played on August 27 and Hurzeler’s side head to Chelsea after that on August 30.
