Football in France Global Sport Cultures Eds Gary Armstrong, Brunel University, Richard Giulianotti, University of Aberdeen, and David Andrews, The University of Maryland From the Olympics and the World Cup to extreme sports and kabaddi, the social significance of sport at both global and local levels has become increasingly clear in recent years. The contested nature of identity is widely addressed in the social sciences, but sport as a particularly revealing site of such contestation, in both industrialising and post-industrial nations, has been less fruitfully explored. Further, sport and sporting corporations are increasingly powerful players in the world economy. Sport is now central to the social and technological development of mass media, notably in telecommunications and digital television. It is also a crucial medium through which specific populations and political elites communicate and interact with each other on a global stage. Berg publishers are pleased to announce a new book series that will examine and evaluate the role of sport in the contemporary world. Truly global in scope, the series seeks to adopt a grounded, constructively critical stance towards prior work within sport studies and to answer such questions as: • How are sports experienced and practised at the everyday level within local settings? • How do specific cultures construct and negotiate forms of social stratification (such as gender, class, ethnicity) within sporting contexts? • What is the impact of mediation and corporate globalisation upon local sports cultures? Determinedly interdisciplinary, the series will nevertheless privilege anthropological, historical and sociological approaches, but will consider submissions from cultural studies, economics, geography, human kinetics, international relations, law, philosophy and political science. The series is particularly committed to research that draws upon primary source materials or ethnographic fieldwork. Previously published titles in the Series: Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti (eds), Fear and Loathing in World Football Tony Collins and Wray Vamplew, Mud, Sweat and Beers: A Cultural History of Sport and Alcohol John Bale and Mike Cronin (eds), Sport and Postcolonialism GLOBAL SPORT CULTURES Football in France A Cultural History Geoff Hare Oxford • New York First published in 2003 by Berg Editorial offices: 1st Floor, Angel Court, 81 St Clements Street, Oxford, OX4 1AW, UK 838 Broadway, Third Floor, New York, NY 10003-4812, USA © Geoff Hare 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Berg. Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hare, Geoff, 1945– Football in France : a cultural history / Geoff Hare. p. cm. – (Global sport cultures) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-85973-657-2 (cloth) – ISBN 1-85973-662-9 (paper) 1. Soccer–Social aspects–France–History. I. Title. II. Series. GV943.9.S64H37 2003 796.334′0944–dc21 2002155815 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 85973 657 2 (Cloth) ISBN 1 85973 662 9 (Paper) Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Wellingborough, Northants. Printed in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn. Contents List of Tables vii Acknowledgements ix Glossary xi 1 Introduction: Studying French Football 1 2 Establishing Football in the French National Consciousness 15 3 Towns and Cities: a Socio-economic Geography of French Football Clubs 37 4 Fans: a Sociology of French Club Football 61 5 Coaches: Building the Successes of French Teams 91 6 Players as Heroes: ‘les Bleus’ and French National Identity 119 7 Television: Football as Spectacle and Commodity 141 8 Chairmen: Business, Politics and Corruption 155 9 Conclusions: French Exceptionalism vs. Commodification 177 Appendix 193 Bibliography 197 Index 211 v Tables 2.1 National Spending on Sport (1993) 31 3.1 Stadium and Infrastructure Development for the 1998 World Cup: Shared Costs 52 3.2 Club Budgets in 2000 and 2001 54 4.1 Division 1 Home Attendances (1999/2002) 62 4.2 Average Division 1 Attendances since the Second World War 63 4.3 Average Home Crowds: Paris Saint-Germain 79 5.1 Official French Coaching Qualifications 96 9.1 European Comparisons of Player Employment Costs (1996) 182 9.2 European Comparisons of Player Employment Costs (2001) 183 A.1 Structure of French Football Leagues at Senior Level 193 A.2 Structure of French Football by Age Group 195 A.3 Structure of Women’s Football in France 196 vii Acknowledgements ‘No man is an island.’ A single authored book – a non-fiction book more particularly – can rarely be entirely the work of one person. There are first of all the multiple sources – written and human – that have been consulted over a number of years (and which hopefully have all been properly acknowledged). There are particularly those writings of others that have proved full of inspiration and fired enthusiasm for the subject. There are those organisations that have believed in the project enough to give financial help for travel. There are those information professionals in libraries and documentation centres who have found or ordered books and articles. There are those friends who knowingly or not have been engaged in conversations about some aspect of the work that the author was trying to clarify. There are others who have kindly agreed to read parts of the manuscript, have commented on it, and thus helped excise embarrassing errors or clarify an argument. The series editor and publishers are always well focused in this kind of contribution. There are those who have taken a more distant interest in the work itself perhaps, but who none the less have offered moral support and kind encouragement. From time to time there is some inspirational music. And then there is one’s nearest and dearest, who does more by just being there, but knowing when to keep out of the way, than she knows. For there comes a time when the author has to shut himself away and finish it off, complete the second or third drafts of the more rebarbative chapters, bring it up to date, and take full and final responsibility for the whole, knowing it could be better, but knowing too it is no good to anybody until it is published. It is invidious to pick out some people for one type of help and others for another, and to put them in any order other than alphabetical. They generally know how they have helped. I shall just list them below therefore. I make an exception for my wife Cathy who deserves pride of place, more than ever, for her love and support, and to whom I dedicate this book. My thanks to: Pierre Bourdieu, Agnès Chauveau, Hugh Dauncey, Kathryn Earle, Alan Fidler, Gloria Gaynor, Richard Giulianotti, Chrystel Hug, Samantha Jackson, Claude Journès, Françoise Lebrun and friends, Daniel Leclercq, Christian Lépagnot, Jo de Linde and the Financial Times Paris Office, Patrick ix Acknowledgements Mignon, Hélène Pérennou, ‘Loulou’ Pérennou, Dave Place, Jessica Plane, Nick Swingler, Marie-Pierre Toulet, Andy Young; also to the staff of the Bibliothèques André Malraux and Mouffetard (Ville de Paris); the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel; the Documentation Centres of the CSA, the INSEP, the Institut Français de Presse; Robinson Library (Newcastle University); and for financial help, the Institut français d’Ecosse, Newcastle University Small Research Grants. Geoff Hare August 2002 x Glossary AJA Association de la jeunesse auxerroise (Auxerre football club) AS Association sportive BEES 1 Brevet d’Etat d’éducateur sportif 1er degré (first-level State coaching qualification) BEES 2 Brevet d’Etat d’éducateur sportif 2ème degré (second-level State coaching qualification) BEES 3 Brevet d’Etat d’éducateur sportif 3ème degré (third-level State coaching qualification) CFA1 Championnat de France amateur Division 1 (French football’s fourth division) CFA2 Championnat de France amateur Division 2 (rank below CFA1) CFI Comité français interfédéral (umbrella body bringing together competing federations of football clubs in early twentieth century) CFO Comité français d’organisation de la Coupe du monde (1998 World Cup Organising Committee) CLT-UFA Compagnie luxembourgeoise de télévision (Luxembourg and German [Bertelsmann] broadcasting holding company) CNFE Centre national de formation et d’entraînement (girls’ national youth football coaching centre at Clairefontaine) CNOSF Comité national olympique et sportif français (French national Olympic committee) CNRS Centre national de la recherche scientifique (national research funding body) CPEF Centre permanent d’entraînement et de formation (local State- funded sports coaching centre) CRS Compagnies républicaines de sécurité (French riot police) CS Club sportif CSA Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (French broadcasting regulator) CTD Conseiller technique départemental (county coaching adviser) CTR Conseiller technique régional (regional coaching adviser) D1 Division 1 (called Ligue 1 from season 2002/03) D2 Division 2 (called Ligue 2 from season 2002/03) xi Glossary DATAR Délégation à l’aménagement du territoire et à l’action régionale (State-run regional economic planning body) DEF Diplôme d’entraîneur de football (qualification to coach at highest amateur club level) DEPF Diplôme d’entraîneur professionnel de football (qualification to coach at professional club level) DNCG Direction nationale de contrôle