Paris (AFP)

A potential sponsor of less for Paris-2024: under the pressure of the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who made the fight against pollution a priority, the oil group Total has renounced to be a partner of the Olympic Games in five years.

For the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (Cojo), the success of its marketing program is a crucial issue and its revenues are at the heart of its business model: Paris-2024 expects indeed 1.2 billion euros of sponsors, out of a total budget announced at 3.8 billion.

But it will be without Total. As revealed by Le Monde and as confirmed by AFP sources at the mayor of Paris, the CEO of the oil and gas giant, Patrick Pouyanné has thrown in the towel after an interview with Anne Hidalgo, last Wednesday.

Contacted, Total, the organizing committee of the Paris-2024 Olympic Games (Cojo) and the town hall did not wish to comment.

In its search for sponsors, Paris-2024 had naturally turned to Total, a group of CAC 40 already present in the sport (African Cup of Nations of football, cycling team Total Direct Energy) and whose sector of activity did not encroach on TOP partners of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

- "Gages aux écolos" -

Talks were underway and Total was even expected to be the second sponsor unveiled by Paris-2024, after the banking group BPCE in September 2018.

But at the end of March, a year from the municipal elections where she will seek a second term, Anne Hidalgo had warned the boss of the Cojo, Tony Estanguet, in a letter that had leaked in Le Parisien: "It would be very difficult for our fellow citizens to be selected companies whose activity would have a heavy impact on the environment, based in particular on the massive use of carbon energies ". Without naming a company, the letter was clearly aimed at Total.

"To keep his majority, Anne Hidalgo is obliged to give pledges to the ecologists", led in four districts (10th, 18th, 19th, 20th) Sunday in the European, observes an actor of the Olympics, on condition of anonymity. Autolib ', Vélib, closing the tracks on bank ... the mayor PS has committed since the beginning of his mandate to reduce the place of the car and fight against pollution.

Tony Estanguet had responded by reminding, in another letter, his "commitment to organize carbon neutral Games". "The choice of partners will never come to question this ambition and the commitments we have made," he said.

- "Temporize" -

But before the general meeting of shareholders, Patrick Pouyanné had warned: "I do not wish to be a sponsor who is pilloried". Incidentally, he had shot a small arrow against the mayor of Paris, noting that the "exceptional gift for Notre Dame de Paris (100 million euros promised) has raised him no controversy".

For the general manager of Sport Market sports marketing agency, Bruno Bianzina, this hitch should "not cool the ardor of other brands." "But after BPCE, we could expect a stronger momentum.Everyone seems to be procrastinating, companies may be trying to save time to lower the price of the ticket," he says. No figures have been disclosed but BPCE, national partner rank 1, would have paid more than 100 million euros for its contract, which runs until 2024. Next to the TOP program of the IOC, which offers brands the global exclusivity on their sector, the Cojo foresees three ranks of partners, of which six to eight for rank 1.

In 2003, Total had already given up controversy over a sponsorship deal with the French Sailing Federation, which he hoped to use to rebuild his image after the wreck of the Erika.

This summer, the mark of the oil giant will still appear on the Champs-Elysees, on the jersey of the riders of the Total Direct Energie team, during the last stage of the Tour de France.

? 2019 AFP