Opportunity and challenge inThe betting Rise and of the integrity: French keySports considerations Industry in a timeMay 2019 of change February 2019 Editorial Director Head of Marketing Contributors James Emmett Milly Preston Saint-Clair Milesi Fran Reyes Art Director Sponsorship Director Cherry Fermor Simon Thomlinson Foreword The Rise of the French Sports Industry

The League of Talents

Nearly a year ago, On the pitches of Ligue 1 Conforama, became champions of they play against established talents the world in Russia for in one of the most dynamic and the second time. With an attractive leagues in the world. N average age of 25 and This new slogan also contributes 10 months, the French football team to raising awareness of Ligue 1 became the youngest world champion Conforama worldwide. Following Didier Quillot, since Brazil in 1970. This worldwide the success of this new national CEO, LFP success highlighted hard work from audiovisual rights deal, the all of the French clubs to train young international development of Ligue talents. Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane 1 Conforama represents the LFP’s Dembélé, Samuel Umtiti, and Blaise number one priority. In this context, Matuidi have all bloomed in Ligue new events are scheduled for this 1 Conforama before reaching any summer. For the first time, four footballer’s Holy Grail. French clubs will be on tour in the US. By the middle of July, the four French A few months before this worldwide clubs will be in Washington DC for success, the tender went out for friendly matches and a tournament. national audiovisual rights. The Additionally, for the second year in a outcomes were highly successful for row, the Trophée des Champions will French football. Ligue 1 Conforama take place in Shenzhen, China. Finally, secured an exceptional and thanks to our partnership with the unprecedented visibility thanks to the firm BKT, we are also working towards arrival of a new player in Mediapro the further development of our brand and by continuing its partnership image in India, which is a promising with BeIN Sports. From 2020, Ligue 1 area for football. In summary, the Conforama will increase the results of LFP is committed to making Ligue 1 its national audiovisual rights by 60%. Conforama the next big thing! Ligue 1 Conforama adopted a new slogan, ‘The Ligue of Talents’, based on these past achievements. The high quality of training centres and the clubs which let young players express themselves enables new talents to reveal themselves every new season.

3 Vive La Revolution (Du Sport) Vive La Revolution (Du Sport) LEADERSReport

Vive La Revolution (Du Sport)

The next handful of years will see France play host to a succession of the world’s biggest sporting events above and beyond its regular carousel of major annual competitions. For the country’s sporting bodies, its political leaders, and its major industries, there is much to gain from the years ahead.

rance is one of sport’s most prolific Income from the travel and tourism industry hosts. Football’s Uefa Euro 2016 is being represents a 3.6% share of the French GDP, higher followed by a Fifa Women’s World Cup than that of any other EU country. It offers a range of F this year, a Rugby World Cup in 2023, summer and winter sports destinations along with a and an Olympic Games in in 2024. calendar of internationally popular sporting events, from the Evian Championship in women’s golf to the Under successive presidents and governments, the Vendee Globe sailing challenge, the Paris Marathon French political class has used sport as a platform for and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Formula One’s French economic development and global projection, as well Grand Prix returned in 2018 after a ten-year absence. as an accelerant for infrastructural projects. Before its current run, it staged a Winter Olympics and Fifa World French Open at Roland Garros attracted 480,500 Cup in the 1990s and a Rugby World Cup in 2007. spectators over two weeks in May and June 2018, with

France is also a significant force in competition, winning the most coveted prize of them all at the INCOME FROM THE TRAVEL Fifa World Cup in Russia last year. As it had been in AND TOURISM INDUSTRY 1998, that victory was celebrated in the media for its REPRESENTS A 3.6% SHARE demonstration of the more youthful, multi-cultural aspects of national society. More directly, it was OF THE FRENCH GDP, HIGHER ample evidence again of the French academy THAN THAT OF ANY OTHER system with 50 French-born players involved at the EU COUNTRY. tournament - the rest represented Morocco, Portugal, Senegal and Tunisia. another 23,000 watching the qualifiers. A rolling €360 The unfolding major event strategy aims to tie million package of renovations, staggered annually together that reputation for sporting excellence with until 2021, will deepen its impact, with a new roof on the tourism needs of the world’s most visited country the Philippe Chatrier show court set to take sessions and a changing economic outlook. into the night.

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French Open tennis on the distinctive clay of Roland Garros.

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Then there is cycling’s three-week Tour de France, men’s tournament, with €775 million of that directly perhaps the most effective travelogue in sport with a attributable to its staging. Those upgrades delivered a television audience in 190 countries. According to a significant expansion in capacity - with the number of 2017 report by Financial Review, towns nationwide pay venues with more than 50,000 seats doubling from two Tour promoter Amaury Sport Organisation €60,000 to to four - and in the availability of hospitality places. host the start of a stage and €110,000 to welcome a finish, and can expect a return of between three and Top-flight French football venues, which have six times that outlay. Around 40 cities and towns are historically been publicly owned, offered an average involved each year; an estimated 12 million people turn of 1,178 VIP seats going into Euro 2016, according to out to watch the peloton go by from the roadside. ESSMA. That worked out at around 4% of capacity, compared to a European average of between 8% and Yet for all the country’s scenery and heritage, it is 12%. This rose significantly among stadiums used for hoped the incoming swing of major sporting events the tournament - most notably at Lyon’s Groupama will highlight the emergence of a new France. Since Stadium, which has 6,000 VIP seats, Marseille’s Stade his election in 2017, President Emmanuel Macron Velodrome, which more than trebled its hospitality has emphasised the nation’s potential as a centre for capacity from 2,000 to 6,500, and the , technological innovation and climate research. whose 4,378 business and VIP seats now account for 11% of overall capacity. The latest edition of EY’s FDI Attractiveness Survey found a 31% rise in the number of inward investment Three Euro 2016 venues will be used for the Women’s projects in 2018 as France rose above the UK to World Cup, with the Groupama Stadium, in its sponsor- be ranked second behind Germany in ‘investor free guise as the Stade de Lyon, staging the semi-finals perceptions of European country attractiveness’. Paris and final. The city has a unique status in the women’s

THE LATEST EDITION OF EY’S FDI ATTRACTIVENESS SURVEY FOUND A 31% RISE IN THE NUMBER OF INWARD INVESTMENT PROJECTS IN 2018 AS FRANCE ROSE ABOVE THE UK TO BE RANKED SECOND BEHIND GERMANY IN ‘INVESTOR PERCEPTIONS OF EUROPEAN COUNTRY ATTRACTIVENESS’.

is now seen as more appealing than London, with game: Olympique Lyonnais Feminin are the reigning Brexit potentially creating further opportunities south French and European champions; they have secured of the Channel. In May, IBM confirmed plans to create 16 domestic league titles and won the Uefa Women’s 1,800 new jobs in the country. Champions League five times.

The Fifa Women’s World Cup By mid-April, over 720,000 of 1.3 million available tickets had been sold for the tournament, which takes Hosting the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup is a timely place from 7th June to 7th July. Three marquee fixtures opportunity for France. TV viewership has climbed sold out within 48 hours: the opening game between across a succession of tournaments, with the total France and South Korea at the Parc des Princes, and global audience of Uefa Women’s Euro 2017 in the the semi-finals and final. Prices are competitive, Netherlands reaching 150 million. ranging from an entry-level €9 for group matches to €84 for a top-category seat at the final. To an extent, the Women’s World Cup will build on the footballing legacy of Uefa Euro 2016, whose The competition is expected to bring its share of economic impact was valued by Keneo and the CDES financial benefits but its social impact will be critical, at €1.22 billion. According to stadium management too. Two of Fifa’s global partners - Visa and Adidas - group ESSMA, €1.7 billion was invested in nine have committed to matching their marketing spend on new or renovated French stadiums ahead of the last year’s men’s World Cup in Russia for the Women’s

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2018 French and European champions, Olympique Lyonnais Feminin.

World Cup this year. Nike, meanwhile, has coordinated skateboarding and surfing, with all four disciplines a significant international push around its activities this lending themselves well to a festivalised setting summer, when it will supply unique kits to 14 of the 24 alongside live music and entertainment. The local teams involved. organisers have also unveiled plans for a mass participation marathon alongside the medal event, as Both Nike and Visa have made long-term commitments well as a chance for fans to take part digitally in the to women’s football through European confederation Games through esports. Uefa, and will look to make a pertinent impression in France. That may create opportunities for local The Games will support a push to realign international agencies to show that they can convey those brands’ perceptions of one of the world’s best-known cities. messages to this growing target market. Mayor Anne Hidalgo has pursued a greener agenda for Paris since her election in 2014, championing the Paris 2024 – tomorrow’s Olympic city extension of bike-sharing schemes, restrictions on motorised transport, a proposed ban on diesel engines Already a two-time Olympic host, Paris was awarded and a pledge to open the Paris Metro on a 24/7 basis. the Summer Games for 2024 after its third bid of the The regional government has also instituted a series modern era. Through earlier attempts to land the of business-friendly initiatives to combat France’s 2008 and 2012 editions, the French capital honed bureaucratic reputation overseas. Just outside the city, not only its political strategy but also its hosting meanwhile, work is underway on a €2 billion expansion concept, which aims to reflect an evolving identity of . as well as the rationalising needs of the International Olympic Committee. There are signs the industry is responding to a different vision of Paris. Last year Nike confirmed that it would The organisers promise that 95% of the facilities used switch Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain to will be existing or temporary, including a cluster Jordan Brand playing kits, promoting the change with around the at St Denis. 80% of cross-cultural activities in music and fashion. Justin venues will be within ten kilometres of the Olympic Timberlake and Beyonce are among those and Paralympic Village, while a ‘Heart of Paris’ cluster to wear bespoke PSG gear, with Jumpman-labelled will bring events to the , , merchandise inspired by both streetwear and Esplanade des Invalides and the . Sporting haute couture. landmarks like Roland Garros and rugby’s Stade Jean- Bouin will also be pressed into service. Rights holders continue to choose Paris as a destination. Over 50,000 spectators a day made the trip Allied to this is a more participative approach to the to from the 28th to 30th of September sporting programme. Paris 2024 has chosen four to watch Europe reclaim the from the additional sports to augment the Olympic core. USA. Next January, the will play the Breakdancing will feature alongside sport climbing, at the revamped AccorHotels

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at Bercy in the first NBA regular season game to be staged in Paris. All 19,000 tickets for the 2019 game went within an hour, with fans from 39 nations making the trip to London’s O2. The organisers of the Paris event will be hoping for a similar uptake when general sale opens in late October.

Later this year, video games publisher Riot Games will bring the League of Legends World Championship, the biggest event in esports, to the AccorHotels Arena.

Rugby World Cup 2023 – reimagining French rugby

In 2017, France saw off Ireland and South Africa to win the right to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It last staged the event in 2007 and was viewed as a somewhat conservative choice, but its selection is expected to offer a sizeable pay-off.

The bid team certainly promised as much, guaranteeing £350 million in proceeds from the tournament that World Rugby would be able to reinvest in the global game. Rugby World Cup 2023 is also expected to be a national occasion, with 2.58 million ticket sales projected.

The tournament will arrive at a pivotal time for rugby union in France. Long-held plans for a new €581 million ‘Grand Stade’ in Ris-Orange were scrapped in December 2016, with the French Rugby Federation (FFR) and French Rugby League (LNR) instead renewing terms to share the Stade de France with the country’s football authorities until at least 2025. The 80,000-seater venue will hold the Rugby World Cup final, as well as national team games and club showpieces.

The Rugby World Cup is also a chance to reenergise French rugby union, with the national team mired in inconsistency as the game drifts behind football and in cultural prominence, particularly in big cities. The sport is approaching its own crossroads globally, with CVC making an offer for a stake in the Six Nations Championship and Infront backing a multi-billion dollar proposal for a new global Nations Championship.

At club level, CVC’s £220 million investment in England’s Gallagher Premiership and mooted interest in the multinational Pro14 competition represent a significant threat to the preeminence of the Top14, currently the most powerful domestic league in the northern hemisphere and one of France’s most robust sports properties.

The French rugby union team will compete on home soil again at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

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None of that should affect the prospects of an event The French sports media landscape could also be which is expected to bring around 450,000 supporters set for dramatic change. According to reports from to French shores. According to a Deloitte report Europe1 in February, Canal+ has been investigating a commissioned by the FFR, it will create or support 17,000 possible acquisition of rival broadcaster beIN Sports. jobs and generate an economic impact of between €1.9 The move follows the failure of Canal+ to secure any billion and €2.4 billion, bringing €119 million into the domestic Ligue 1 rights in May 2018, with beIN picking French treasury through taxes. up limited packages and the Chinese-owned, Spanish- based Mediapro agency taking the bulk of them for its Challenges and opportunities in wait new channel in a deal worth €1.15 billion a year from 2020 to 2024. Since his election in 2017 ahead of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, French president and En Marche leader If it came to pass, the beIN takeover would be a Emmanuel Macron has sought to modernise the French statement of real intent from French media giant economy with a series of pro-business labour reforms Vivendi, the Canal+ parent whose €34.3 billion and tax cuts. Yet despite some positive signs, like a rise in of current assets include Universal Music Group, overall employment and a fall in youth unemployment, Dailymotion and the Havas agency. It would also run his agenda has so far come at a substantial political cost. against a definitive trend in the last decade of the French sports business, possibly marking the start of a Macron’s personal approval levels remain stale while in new era. The Qatar Sports Investments vehicle bought recent months, Paris has been the scene of sometimes a controlling stake in Ligue 1 football club Paris Saint- violent weekly protests by the populist ‘Gilets Jaunes’ Germain in 2011, subsequently bankrolling a decade movement. With the country’s traditional parties in a state of success, while Qatar is also the title sponsor of the of collapse and the renamed Rassemblement National Prix de l’, Europe’s richest horse race. still a looming threat, the stakes are high for Macron’s En The Qatari-owned beIN Sports has helped stimulate Marche project. the French broadcast rights market since its entry as a competitor to Canal+ and native telcos in 2012. All of that means that any unifying benefits of an effective sports strategy will be welcome, and it is important they There is one further goal that, if met, would carry are widely shared. Macron has been critical of the current potent symbolism for the French sports project.

MACRON HAS BEEN CRITICAL OF THE CURRENT PARIS 2024 PLANS, CLAIMING THAT THE SEINE-SAINT-DENIS DISTRICT AROUND THE STADE DE FRANCE, WHICH HAS SOME OF THE HIGHEST POVERTY AND CRIME RATES IN THE COUNTRY, IS “NOT GETTING A FAIR RETURN”.

Paris 2024 plans, claiming that the Seine-Saint-Denis Following a disastrous fire there in mid-April, the district around the Stade de France, which has some of French government has set an optimistic five-year the highest poverty and crime rates in the country, is target for rebuilding Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral. The “not getting a fair return”. In response, his opponents cost of such a project is not yet known, although the have pointed to the direct, adverse effect on local sports IOC has joined prominent billionaires and heads of clubs of public spending cuts and a reduction in state- foreign governments in pledging €500,000 towards a supported jobs. restoration fund.

Making France’s domestic sports properties more If the 850-year-old monument is returned to former competitive is a further challenge. LFP chief executive glories by the time the Olympic flame arrives in 2024, Didier Quillot has begun the process of restructuring it would embody France’s desire to meld tradition and the league as a digital entity, telling the Leaders Sport ambition in its global image for the 21st century. Business Summit in London last year that new recruits to his digital team are all aged under 30 to ensure the right outlook.

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France? Why France?

Saint-Clair Milesi, Communications Director for the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil and for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic bid campaign, details the upward curve in the French sports market.

any times have I answered this world, elected officials and yes, the private sector. question before leaving Rio for The bid received millions of euros from private good and moving to Paris in 2014. sponsors, certainly developing into a financing case M After having worked to help bring study for future bids (if bidding for the Olympics and the Games to Rio in 2016 and as the Paralympics actually continue as it is). communications director for the Fifa World Cup in 2014, I thought it was time for a new challenge in life. THE WAVE OF OPTIMISM And even though France is the birthplace of modern AND GROWTH THAT Olympism and that the country’s sports leagues and CULMINATED WITH PARIS competitions are recognised worldwide, the sports WINNING THE RIGHT TO scene in France in 2014 was far from as promising as it is now. But one could already spot a rising trend with HOST THE GAMES AFTER a closer look. Sports were a growing field in all aspects 100 YEARS DID NOT COME in France. BY CHANCE.

Quickly going back to that time, when I arrived in Paris in December 2014… The wave of optimism and growth that culminated with Paris winning the right to host the Games after The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Bid Committee 100 years did not come by chance. The French capital was being formed under the skepticism of the and the whole country were hosting more and more multiple bid failures, particularly that painful defeat international sporting events and the local sports in Singapore against London 2012. The general scene was gaining more momentum, becoming sexier perception in the Olympic world and among the in the international market. French public opinion, though receptive, was not so favourable, especially with sports marketing With the success stories in football, volleyball, sweetheart Los Angeles in the race. and other sports as well as with the convergence of major sports events in the country, the But the bid was very well organized by its leaders French sports scene has stepped up to a new level - on and built almost to perfection between the sports and off the fields and courts.

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Paris 2024 bid president Tony Estanguet pitches his city to the Olympic movement.

On the football scene, who would dare to say a few The job market in sports is also promising and years ago that one of the top brands in football like already fulfilling its potential. According to the French Neymar Jr. would be playing in Ligue 1? French government, the sports sector will generate 40,000 jobs football, benefiting from new stadia from Euro 2016, between 2017 and 2024. Yes, 5,000 new jobs a year in is booming and top clubs are real contenders in the sports in France. I am proud to have accounted for one Champions and Europa Leagues. of those jobs as communications director for the Paris 2024 bid. Still in the realm of the round ball, who would have bet that the group led by Didier Deschamps would Since the beginning of this decade, the household reach the Euro and the Fifa World Cup finals and leave expenditures in goods and services for sports England and behind in number of Fifa World amounted to €16.6 billion (Mission des études, de Cup successes? Yes, the French can claim that l’observation et des statistiques). advantage now. The good results in the Olympic Games boosted Last year France got back on the F1 circuit after a ten- audiences and fueled the passion for sports. France year absence. The French GP is bringing a new dynamic to the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and nearly ACCORDING TO THE FRENCH €80 million in economic positive impact, according to a study by Deloitte. GOVERNMENT, THE SPORTS SECTOR WILL GENERATE And after hosting the world’s top competition in 40,000 JOBS BETWEEN handball, surfing, ice hockey, wrestling, canoe-kayak, 2017 AND 2024. in 2017, France then received the Ryder Cup, the Gay Games, the handball women’s Euro in 2018, the Fifa Women’s World Cup yet to come in 2019, the Rugby came seventh at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, with World Cup in 2023 and the Olympic and Paralympic a record 42 medals, including ten gold, 18 silver, and Games in 2024. 14 bronze. Athletes such as Teddy Riner, the handball national teams, and the French swimming team are With all these events and the alignment of economic now nationally recognized celebrities. factors, sports business of course is naturally on an expansion. According to a 2018 report by Sponsora, In the year of the Rio Olympic and Paralympic the French sponsorship market amounts to €3 billion Games, nearly 150 athletes were sponsored by (activation estimate included). around sixty French companies. Among the sponsors

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French judo colossus Teddy Riner in action at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

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Banque Populaire has been a sponsor in sailing for decades. were big-name companies such as energy giants terms of the contract are confidential, the market EDF, transportation organisations RATP and SNCF, estimates the sponsorship value between €60 million the French lottery, Coca-Cola, and even a sports and €100 million. performance startup, Mac-Lloyd. The sponsorship is already active as of last January. The expansion on the fields and is reflected A partner of the French NOC since 2010, the group in the general public and sports audiences at home. is no stranger to sport sponsorship and has been Since 2000, the air time for sports programmes in present in different sports via its brands. Banque French TV has been multiplied by four (Observatoire de Populaire has been a sponsor in sailing for decades, l’économie du sport, 2017). Caisse d’Epargne sponsors different sports federations including basketball, and Natixis is a partner of Racing The aforementioned trends clearly show that the 92 rugby club. sponsorship market has been tilled to a fertile state - promising grounds in France on the road to 2024. Naturally some international companies are also surfing this recent wave in the growth of the French Paris 2024 sponsorship market.

The economic impact of the Olympic and Paralympic Ecommerce giant Amazon, already a household Games in Paris, the main sporting event ever to be name in many French homes, is one major player held in France, naturally deserves a closer look. which recently decided to venture in the country. The American company has recently signed a partnership An independent study from the sports think-tank CDES with the French basketball league (LNB). The company’s from Limoges shows that, on a realistic scenario logo became visible on the players’ uniforms and the economic impact of the Olympic and Paralympic gymnasiums and TV transmissions. Games in Paris and its region is estimated at €8.1 billion. Another major brand that recently joined the French sports environment is Vice. The Canadian digital media According to the Centre de Droit et d’Economie company is the main jersey sponsor of the Red Star, an du Sport and the Amnyos, over the next five iconic club from northern Paris with a strong popular, years, 150,000 jobs will be created directly by the left-wing DNA and beloved of Parisian hipsters turned preparations for and organisation of the Games. Three off by PSG’s global shine. sectors will be particularly concerned: construction, organisation and tourism. In conclusion, numbers and trends to encourage sponsorship in the French market are abundant. France Impactful brand sponsorships is strengthening its position as a leading sporting nation and hopefully the market will keep answering The first major company to step up to the plate to the call through 2024. And hopefully beyond. become an official sponsor after Paris 2024 won the bid was the BPCE banking group. Even though the

17 French Sport, Expert in Export French Sport, Expert in Export LEADERSReport

French Sport, Expert in Export

Heritage, know-how, authenticity and the excitement of pure competition are the unique selling points that two of the main sporting entities in France are capitalising on in their quest for international expansion. Fran Reyes examines how.

The peloton rides down the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc e Tour de France? “C’est géant!” de Triomphe.

“Compared to your normal cycling race, everything is multiplied ten times. There L is more people, more spectators, more rush, more pressure, more expectation. It’s so hard, yet everyday you wake up pumped, looking forward to the stage even though there are 21. It amounts to almost four weeks on the road, but you don’t realize time is going by and life is happening around you right until the moment you make it back home. That first Monday after the race, you enter your house and the bubble bursts. Pressure and adrenaline completely abandon your body and you spend three days lying on your bed, wasted. But after that, what stay with you are some of the best memories of your life. You are not a mere pro cyclist anymore, but a pro cyclist who has completed the Tour. It is a coming-of-age experience. And yeah, it is a shame that cycling is so Tour-centered sometimes, because there are so many events that are very beautiful as well. But le Tour, c’est le Tour.”

Elie Gesbert, a young, promising French rider for the Arkéa-Samsic team, has only ridden the Tour de France twice. Yet he knows what it is about. It is 116 years of history since L’Auto, a French newspaper that needed an event to sell more to its readers, launched the first edition. It is roughly 3,350 kilometres to be ridden in 21 days on a road bike: most of them in France, although spells abroad are often exploited as a source of excitement and business. It is a travelling village with a population of 4,500 people joining efforts to put

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Around half a million spectators line up to watch the Tour each day.

together a daily show during the month of July. It is owned company. According to French newspaper Le 120 trucks, and 60 kilometres of wiring deployed and Monde, €150 million out of the €226 million of revenue rolled up every day, and an average of half a million ASO generated in 2017 relates to the Tour de France. people watching the race from the roadside every day. Like pretty much every big sport business, the Tour Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani was one of those spectators de France relies heavily on TV rights, which make for back at the end of the past century. The former Emir half its income - one third comes from sponsors; the of Qatar was spending a summer in the French rest, from public institutions which bid to host the countryside when a gendarme asked him to step race or just see it pass through their territory. France away from the road, as the peloton was about to flash Télévisions, the French national TV network, pays a past. The view was so mesmerizing that he took the reported €25 million per year to host and broadcast decision to create a cycling race in his own small, the event that paralyzes the country and captures its desert country. Via some business acquaintances, Al imagination during its summer holidays. Along with Thani contacted cycling legend Eddy Merckx, and ‘the ASO, it has sustained for decades a long-running Cannibal’ looked for the assistance of those show- deal with the EBU (European Broadcasting Union), makers who organise the ‘Grande Boucle’. the alliance of European public service media organisations which every year puts together the ASO, Amaury Sport Organisation, is the company Eurovision music show, for the race to be broadcasted behind the biggest show in cycling. Although its by public TV networks and Eurosport all over the Old portfolio includes landmark events as big as the Dakar Continent. Worldwide, the distribution is completed by Rally (a race which made its legend in Africa, was deals with ESPN in Latin America, CCTV and Tencent relocated to South America following terrorist threats, Sports in China, BeIN Sports in the Middle East or and will take place in Saudi Arabia from 2020) or the Caracol TV in the cycling-mad Colombia. Paris Marathon, as well as different ventures in golf and sailing, cycling in general and the Tour de France in Remember the Qatari Emir? The country got its stage particular is still the jewel in the crown of this family- race. And so did Oman, Germany and Norway. All of

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them trusted cycling, and ASO, to better portray the beauties of their land. In a canny play, ASO includes all these ad hoc created races in the broadcasting deal of the Tour de France, along with older, traditional races of its ownership such as Paris-Roubaix, Critérium du Dauphiné or the Vuelta a España, another 21-day grand tour held in Spain. Other race organisers, such as the Australian Santos Tour Down Under, the Tour of Turkey or the Tour of California, have also knocked on ASO’s door looking for services such as consultation or media distribution. All in all, the French company is involved in some capacity or other with 95 of the 181 racing days of the UCI World Tour, road cycling’s top tier, and owns 61, a figure which is expected to grow by seven as it may purchase the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Clasica de San Sebastian in the coming months.

Like the Tour de France, professional road cycling has always been dependent on media, sponsorship and public institutions to go ahead: a B2B model that has been proven as barely sustainable time and again, with events and teams folding every year.

To solve this seemingly eternal conundrum, ASO has extended its portfolio with a new breed of events: mass participation, leisure cycling rides, popularly known as Gran Fondos or sportives. These events are open to any recreational rider wishing to take part, offering a cycling experience that can be enjoyed via a variety of options ranging from the mere sign-up for the event to a luxury package with transportation to and from the airport and 5-star accommodation. Some of these events are paired with landmark races, such as the Paris-Roubaix Challenge or L’Étape du Tour. Others, like the spin-offs that L’Étape has in locations as varied as Acapulco (México), Marrakech (Morocco) or Zhuji (China), offer the chance of ‘experience the Tour de France legend’ and ‘unique atmosphere’ in locations that will probably never be visited by the Tour itself.

ASO will hold up to 20 sportive event in 2019, all of them with former champions from cycling history showing up to add their glow, mystique and essence to the leisure event. From a pure business perspective: it’s a B2C line to further exploit the Tour de France brand Arnold Brucy and spur an ever-growing business that produced €44 competes in the million of profit in 2017. gruelling Dakar Rally.

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The French national team celebrates.

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Leave the bike, take the ball European Championship and the 2010 World Cup in the group stage. The runner-up spot in the 2016 European It’s Sunday afternoon in Roubaix. After eight days of Championship, with the core of the soon-to-be world flat racing, the Tour de France has just had its first champion team already realising its potential, was the showdown between its favourites on the cobbles confirmation of this. Yet Ligue 1, the national football of Northern France where some of cycling’s biggest league which was once regarded as one of the world’s legends have been written - and smashed. Despite finest, only second to Italy’s Serie A in the early 90s, the glare of its name, Roubaix is not exactly a blazing was still to take its profits and bounce back from a city: rather a sombre one. The unemployment rate is losing streak since PSG won the Cup Winners’ Cup in well over 30%, with one out of every two citizens of 1996 - still the last European title ever claimed by a its 55,000 population living below the poverty line. French club. Even its iconic velodrome, finish of the prestigious Paris - Roubaix classic, the place most riders dream of, In April 2017, the LFP, League de Football Professionel, is ramshackle. Still, the city embraces cycling with all ruling entity of the top two tiers of French football, its warmth and harshness every April - and so it does Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, introduced its strategy for the again this month of July. coming five years. It was the culmination of an internal shake-up, which had seen Didier Quillot, In the aftermath, the same people who have been former CEO of Orange France, and Nathalie Boy de la contemplating the cycling race finish are dragged Tour, appointed to the positions of CEO and president elsewhere by an invisible force. There is a rugby field of the organisation in a space of eight months. The nearby, and a giant screen on it. The French national document outlined a series of goals and priorities for football team is playing the Fifa World Cup final. the development of the competition, namely: B2B, B2C, There is a feeling of imminent conquest in the air: brand building, international exposure and local talent momentum growing as Pogba and Mbappé score to protection and retention. defeat the rival Croatia team, and then climax when goalkeeper and captain Lloris raises the trophy. “France has always produced a vast amount of talented ‘La Grandeur’ - the magnificence. People emerge footballers, but not many stayed in the country during

[ASO] IS INVOLVED IN SOME CAPACITY OR OTHER WITH 95 OF THE 181 RACING DAYS OF THE UCI WORLD TOUR.

from everywhere: cars honking, flags waving, beers the golden years of their careers,” asserts Cejudo. opening. A feast of celebration to overshadow the The whole starting XI of the Spanish national team travelling circus that left town discreetly hours ago. who won the 2010 World Cup final played for teams of La Liga, whereas only one of the 11 footballers who Even though cycling is deeply embedded in the attained for France in 2018 played in Ligue 1. Far French mindset, even if it might be the country’s most from being an isolated historical hiccup, the same had prominent showcase, it is not the most popular sport. happened in 1998 - only goalkeeper Barthez and centre “Football is gaining traction and space in the media, forward Guivarc’h made their living playing in the although rugby is still pretty big,” says José Ignacio domestic competition, with both being transferred later Cejudo, a Spanish sports journalist who lived and to the wealthier English Premier League. “Part of the worked in France for a year. “Rugby has more of a reason for this phenomenon was money,” continues white-collar fandom, whereas football is played and Cejudo. “French teams were sellers rather than buyers. followed by ‘new French’ - young people born in France Also, the fact that most clubs were not competitive on from foreign parents. The French national squad is a European level encouraged players to pursue their spearheaded by footballers from such backgrounds.” dreams abroad.”

France’s triumph last summer was not the result of The balance has shifted in recent years, though. On chance, nor a surprise, but the result of an upward the increasingly inflated international football transfer trajectory that began after an ominous cycle in which landscape, Ligue 1 has grown in both spend and the national squad was ejected from both the 2008 income terms above the average according to the

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26 French sport, expert in export The Rise of the French Sports Industry

data available on the Transfermarkt web platform. this quantity is shared 50-50 by the LFP and BeIN. Although it remains a seller’s market on which the Still, the marketing efforts undertaken by French amount of money cashed in exceeds the investment, football entities abroad are proving fruitful, with China it still is a positive sign for its development to see the being its best harvesting ground. LFP opened its first expenditure in talent increasing. international office in Beijing back in 2017, adapted the schedule of its matchdays for them to suit Asian Behind this sustained boost there are several factors. timezones and brought the 2018 edition of its summer One is foreign investment. Since Russian businessman tournament, the Trophée des Champions, played by Dmitri Rybolovlev bought a majority stake at AS PSG and AS Monaco, to Shenzhen, where it attracted Monaco and the Qatar Investment Authority purchased 47,000 spectators. But, above all, what has made the Paris-Saint Germain in 2011, another four Ligue 1 difference on its recognition in this country was a deal clubs have been acquired in some capacity by foreign struck in April 2018 by which two games per matchday companies or individuals. With this influx of are broadcast live on CCTV5, the sports-dedicated TV ownership money has come enhanced ambition in channel of China’s public media network. the transfer market. Much has been made of the interest of China in And then come TV rights. On the domestic side, Ligue football. After much ado, the potential is finally being 1 found itself hampered with a deal of €726,5 million realised. During the last Fifa World Cup, 14 out of per year between 2016 and 2020 – well below the €1 the 20 biggest audiences for games worldwide were billion milestone that had already been surpassed by registered on CCTV1 and CCTV5 broadcasts. Despite the rest of the top five European leagues. This changed being aired at 11pm on a Sunday, the final between last year, when Mediapro ruffled established media Croatia and France managed to keep 55 million China feathers with a €1.153 billion deal for the TV rights of residents in front of their TV sets. The very game that France’s top tier on its home soil, overhauling historic cheered up the city of Roubaix on an afternoon in July broadcaster Canal+ from 2020 on. As things stand, was the best possible advertisement for French football Ligue 1 is the third most valuable league of Europe, in its quest to better export itself. TV-wise, on standings that are still led by an English Premier League.

Abroad, the recognition of the Ligue 1 brand and competition is growing steadily. The profit the clubs make out of international TV rights increases slowly. Those rights are subject to a long-term deal with BeIN Sports, inked in 2013 and valid until 2023, by which the Qatari broadcaster is responsible for the reselling of the TV rights worldwide for the relatively small sum of €80 million, and every amount generated in excess of

Gigi Buffon’s PSG took on AS Monaco in the Trophée des Champions in Shenzhen in 2018.

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