Fan soundtracks struggle to find their audience in Ligue 1

The Vélodrome broadcast supporters' chants against Nantes to breathe life into the camera.

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• Already underway in some European championships, the broadcasting of soundtracks with supporters' chants has appeared in Ligue 1 in recent weeks.

• Set up to create a little atmosphere despite the closed doors in the stadiums, this system deeply divides the players in French football.

Hide this silence that cannot be heard.

You have surely noticed in recent weeks that Ligue 1 clubs - not all of them - have ended up giving way to the sirens of prefabricated atmospheres, version of recorded laughter from the AB series of our childhood, to hide the sadness of the meetings behind closed doors.

If this phenomenon is not new in our European neighbors, the Bundesliga and the Premier League have implemented this system at the end of last season when the

, France and the LFP have more time before allow clubs to try the experiment.

Be careful, we are not talking about a background sound set up only for the viewers, but many stadium sound systems spitting live the songs of their supporters.

In Strasbourg, the initiative of Racing does not pass near the ultras

In Ligue 1, Strasbourg is the first club to have tried it.

It was November 6 on the occasion of the reception of OM at the Meinau stadium.

As the club management did not wish to follow up on our maintenance requests, we turned to the UB90s, the main ultra group of the Alsatian club, to have a first feedback.

Unsurprisingly, this one is salty.

Extracts:

“During the reception of Marseille, Racing saw fit to broadcast a soundtrack with a semblance of atmosphere in the speakers of the Meinau, which rather annoyed us (…).

The recent history of Racing shows how the special atmosphere of Meinau could not be reproduced without the soul of its thousands of lovers.

We want to dissociate ourselves from this type of initiative which was taken by the club against our will and despite our clear and negative position on this subject.

The atmosphere is not invented, it is lived!

"

In Marseille, this was done in consultation with the Vélodrome ultras, according to a spokesperson for the club: “From the confinement, we thought about solutions, in particular by studying everything that was being done elsewhere in the world, he explains.

We obviously consulted extensively before setting up this system: the groups of supporters have given their consent for us to use their chants (recorded during a match last year) ”.

For his part, André Villas-Boas also supported the initiative.

“I talked to the players about it, they prefer it when there are these sounds.

After that, it doesn't make a big difference, the stadium is empty anyway.

But I would prefer to have it for all the matches, I like it a lot even if it does not replace the supporters and their fervor, ”he confided at a press conference after the victory against Nantes on Saturday.

A lot of work upstream for results that are not always convincing

A speech that contrasts with that of Christian Gourcuff, his opponent that day.

“I find it very unpleasant and I prefer it when there is nothing.

I also thought about it during the match.

In addition, the sound is out of step with what happens during the match, it is really not a success, ”he noted after the Canaries' defeat at the Vélodrome.

Reviews that can also be found in our in-house journalists.

In Strasbourg, Thibaut Gagnepain speaks of a “medley that was not very successful because it was often out of tune”.

A little weird, for real.

As much on TV I'm not happy, as much at the stadium it's artificial I find.

- Alexandre Aflalo (@aflaalex) November 28, 2020

“It's really weird the first time to get caught in the ears of the chants of supporters at full blast when the stadium, and which stadium, is completely empty in front of us, supports Adrien Max, who covers OM for

.

It is true that there is a slight disconnect between the actions on the pitch and the enthusiasm of the supporters on the soundtrack, while the reactions of the supporters are supposed to be spontaneous.

"But I still prefer it when there is a little atmosphere," he confides.

It would just be necessary that the sound diffusion is more worked, but it is normal that all is not yet perfect, inevitably it is very new.

"

So new that according to the spokesperson for OM, “we had to work to find and train a technician capable of“ playing ”a match in a realistic way, because it is a profession that does not exist!

The hardest part is actually to stick as closely as possible to the facts of the game (goal, disappointment if a missed shot, etc.).

The other criticism made to the Marseillais after the match against Nantes is the sound volume, much too loud to believe Christian Gourcuff.

“It needs to be loud enough to be audible to the players, but not too loud so as not to interfere with TV production.

It therefore requires a lot of tests and adjustments to be made ”upstream, we readily admit from the OM side.

A puzzle for new acting DJs

How does it work from a technical point of view?

To find out, we asked Hugo Georgel, head of content and press relations at RC Lens, who was entrusted with the heavy task of creating the sound environment broadcast for the first time against Nantes on November 25.

“It took me a day to put it all together.

I got the international signals without comment from the broadcasters that we get at the end of each game at home.

I looked for fan chants from the five-six games where there was the most atmosphere last year at Bollaert.

I removed all the whistles from the public, the insults, the noise of the players kicking the ball, the instructions of the coaches.

This is what takes the most time.

Then, I mixed everything in stereo so that it could be heard the same way all over the stadium.

It's a bit like a cooking recipe.

You put the stuff together a bit and try to make a cake that looks like something.

"

A return of the gauges in the stadiums before Christmas? 

The final version pleased the Lensois coach Franck Haise.

“He thought it was still nicer than emptiness,” notes Bollaert's new acting DJ.

It still gives the atmosphere and it allows to occupy the sound space especially when the match is boring.

“An opinion that the people of Nantes do not necessarily share, they who have twice been the guinea pigs of this new experience, in Lens and Marseille.

At the Vélodrome, "an unbearable noise", they say at the club.

In Bollaert?

“A kind of background music that is too low, like a train that goes by all the time”.

Norman Noisette, the president of Lens United, the federation of all groups of Lensois supporters, understands that his club can give it a go, but for him "it represents everything we hate in football, it contributes to the fact that it is in the process of becoming 100% television ”.

He can be reassured, the Bollaert stadium ambianceur also "hope that this technique will not be used too much during the season, it will mean that the public is back at the stadium.

“At the latest news, the Minister for Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, was pushing for a return of the public with a gauge of 25% from December 15 but nothing has yet been decided at the Elysee. 

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