By Samindra Kunti
January 20 – Back in 1984 France won their first major tournament by defeating Spain 2-0 on home soil to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy. Michel Hidalgo’s eleven became part of French football folklore as the French came off age in the beautiful game. Coaches Alain Giresse, Luis Fernandez and Tigana later nurtured a next generation of French football players who’d excel at the 1998 France World Cup and EURO2000 co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands.
Fast forward to 2016 and UEFA’s flagship tournament returns to France. This time the hosts, with the French Football Federation (FFF) and Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) at the forefront, want more than a mere sporting legacy, a buzzword invented by marketeers to weigh heavy on tournament organisers. A legacy is simply crucial today.
The LFP want to galvanize the domestic league again. For too long Ligue 1 has been a far too mundane league in hibernation and bereft of the fun, frolics and stardust that have catapulted La Liga, the Premier League and the Bundesliga into a global stratosphere of their own. Paris Saint-Germain and their owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi from Qatar have skewed the competitive balance in the league, a further symptom of economic imperatives changing the landscape in European leagues.
As such the LFP may not be in a position to do much about the competitive balance of Ligue 1 and they might not be averse to the global status that PSG enjoy. The league rather seeks to upgrade the fan experience in stadia across France after the tournament. In that respect the 1998 France World Cup was a failure: a blue move swept through Paris and the famed Champs-Elysees on the night Zidane headed Les Bleus to eternal glory, but on average just 20,000 fans watched matches during the following 1998/99 French season. Today that mark has not improved much.
The French can take a leaf out of Germany’s book. The Germans capitalised on hosting a successful 2006 World Cup with the introduction of new stadia, with Bundesliga clubs getting higher gates than ever while maintaining affordable ticket prices. For EURO2016 Bordeaux, Lyon, Lille and Nice are building brand-new stadia, while the other six venues are getting a facelift.
Those stadia must highlight to owners that running a successful club is not merely about winning the next game and seeking domestic trophies, but also about long-term planning to modernise and further commercialise the game.
The FFF have a distinct footballing target with EURO2016 in producing the next generation of French football stars. A EURO2016 road show will visit 20 non-host cities staging football demonstrations and holding social events. Football doesn’t enjoy sole dominion in France as both basketball and handball challenge its popularity.
Germany may again provide their neighbors with a recipe for success. After a disappointing EURO2000 the Germans reinvented their grassroots football system. The German FA (DFB) in conjunction with the Bundesliga and the clubs targeted the development of proficient and skillful home-grown players.
In 2003 the DFB’s talent development programme was introduced, covering 366 areas in Germany served by 1,000 part-time DFB coaches with UEFA B coaching licenses. German football’s overhaul spanned a decade and culminated in a true renaissance by defeating Argentina 1-0 in the final of the 2014 Brazil World Cup, a fair accolade for Joachim Low and his team.
The FFF want to mirror this fruitful collaborative approach towards grassroots football by popularising the game. They aim for an increase of 15% of members from 2.2 million to about 2.5 million by 2018 by investing €37 million to cement a grassroots legacy.
By the time of the 2018 Russia World Cup you might well see the next Anthony Martial or Paul Pogba watched by millions in Ligue 1, or so that is what the FFF and LFP are hoping for.
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