Paris (AFP)
Is French football "really too stupid"? At a time when its neighbors resume their season, the championship of France, stopped early, wonders about the reasons for this European exception, between governance in crisis, political dependence and deficit of "football culture".
"We are hanging ourselves", "we are really too stupid". With these two projections addressed to the daily L'Equipe in recent weeks, the president of Lyon Jean-Michel Aulas, lonely in his fight against the end of the season, made headlines.
Does he pin the leaders of French football, responsible for this decision taken at the Board of Directors of the Professional Football League (LFP) on April 30? Or is he rebelling in the face of the early speech by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe who announced two days earlier that the football season "will not be able to resume"?
The decision-making process questions. On the side of the League and several club presidents, we indeed waved for a month this government declaration to affirm that the State had made "resumption" of the championships.
But Thursday, Edouard Philippe returned the ball to the other side: "It is not for me to decide on decisions of leagues and federations", he launched, adding that in his opinion the time to to resume was "not come".
But he also left open a possible resumption of matches after June 21, while a month earlier the government excluded any meeting before August, even in camera ...
"We have not received an order from Matignon to stop. It is wrong to suggest that it is a unilateral decision of the Prime Minister", assumed this week Patrick Wolff, president of the National Association of Leagues professional sports (ANLSP) which responded to senators favorable to the recovery.
- "State Football"? -
Some point rather to the ambient cacophony, between phone calls from club presidents to ministerial cabinets and lack of clarity on certain dates (such as that of August 3, simply recommended by UEFA to end the season and not imposed), rendering the real wishes of football leaders.
"The governance of French professional football is very crumbled", analysis for AFP Régis Juanico, deputy (Génération.s) of the Loire. "Everyone expresses themselves, and that complicates things. What is missing in French football, which does not speak with one voice, is continuity and consistency. What mattered above all to clubs, c were measures that allow them to save themselves economically. "
Many leaders have quickly insisted on the importance of "securing" the juicy next season, that of the new television rights contract (1.217 billion euros annually), which is 60% higher than the previous one.
But some, a posteriori, have a deeper reflection on the role of the State in the functioning of professional football.
"In the other countries, there have been interdepartmental meetings with important representatives of the professional clubs, and they are restarting. In France, there have not been these meetings. From a distance, we can therefore think that the State was not too interested in football ... But on the contrary, it was so interested in it that it decided to stop it! There is a paradox ", points out a leader of club of Ligue 1. "Many people wonder if in the end we are not in state football".
- Cultural particularity -
In England and Germany, in particular, political voices have been heard to assert that a weekend of football would be good for the morale of the nation. In France, the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu slipped that sport "will not be a priority", attracting certain wrath from the sports world.
Lobbying deficit or cultural particularity of a France less passionate about football than its neighbors?
"Many football fans in France are convinced that the dominant class in their country does not like football, but it is a bit of self-victimization, of jealousy compared to English, German, Spanish societies or Italian. It is not enough "to explain the French exception, tempers Albrecht Sonntag, professor at the management school of Angers (ESSCA) and author of European Football Identities.
"Much more than the degree of love of the country for football", it is the "thirst for equality" of French society which explains it, continues the sociologist. "In France (the State) has more particularly this role of guarantor of equality. This is why there can be no special treatment for football. When the French State says + Football does not resume +, that is no longer discussed. "
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