Bastia have accused French Football League (LFP) president Frederic Thiriez of being "an anti-Corsican racist" and called for him to resign after being infuriated by his actions at Saturday's Coupe de la Ligue final.
Bastia were beaten 4-0 by Paris Saint-Germain, but the Corsican club were left even more angry by the actions of Thiriez, who decided to cancel the habitual prematch protocol when he would normally be introduced to both sets of players.
Angered by Thiriez's decision not to visit Bastia to present the club with the Ligue 2 trophy in 2012, and further irritated by numerous LFP sanctions taken due to crowd disturbances at Stade Furiani, the near 30,000-strong contingent of Bastia fans chanted insults at Thiriez before and during the final at the Stade de France.
Bastia president Pierre-Marie Geronimi told RMC that Thiriez's decision not to meet the players before kick-off was due to deep-set prejudices against his club.
"Thiriez already showed three years ago when he didn't want to give us the trophy as champions that he's a racist. An anti-Corsican racist. Corsican football and Corsican players aren't the lepers of French football," Geronimi insisted, adding: "Sporting Club de Bastia asks him to quit, he has to leave."
A number of Bastia players refused to shake Thiriez's hand when they accepted their runners-up medals, while captain Yannick Cahuzac would not allow the LFP boss to put the medal around his neck.
Many players and technical staff climbed the steps to the VIP stand wearing t-shirts bearing their long-standing request for games not be played on May 5 out of respect for the 18 people killed when a temporary stand at the Stade Furiani collapsed prior to their Coupe de France semifinal with Marseille in 1992.
Speaking to Radio France, Thiriez defended himself.
"My sole objective was for the game to take place in a party atmosphere," he insisted. "However, I knew very well, because it's my role to be informed, that the moment I went down onto the pitch, there would be incidents, and those incidents would spoil the party and tarnish the start of the match with some rather disagreeable things.
"So, I sacrificed myself in a kind of way. It's not nice for me not to go down and shake the players' hands before the game. I sacrificed myself in the general interest so that the party would not be spoiled."