Paris (AFP)

Are young people losing interest in football?

"Netflix, esport and social networks take them + time of passion available +", worry many players in the world of football, who see the viewers of tomorrow in the midst of the crisis of the economic model of football.

"The battle for attention" has begun, summarizes Christophe Lepetit, from the Center for Sports Law and Economics (CDES) in Limoges.

This relative disaffection "is a problem" for Barcelona's Gerard Piqué, still a player and already a businessman in the sports spectacle.

"This generation finds it difficult to stay focused during the 90 minutes of a match, with the Internet, social networks ..." assures the Catalan, but this audience is "the key to the future of our sport".

The "generation Z" (born between 1996 and 2012) consumes half as much sports on the small screen than the Millennials.

In this previous generation (1981-1996), which blew up the sports market on TV, 15% watch sports every day, against 8% of "Gen Z", according to a Morning Consult study in September 2020.

According to the Italian firm Stageup, the proportion of 14-34 year-olds who watched Serie A each week fell from 44% for the 2001-2002 season to 35% for the current one.

Arnaud Simon, head of the In & Out Stories agency which advises sports TV rights holders, sees several reasons for this estrangement from young people.

- Renew the hearing -

“They are in great demand. Netflix, esport and social networks take them from + available passionate time +. And the confinements have caused an acceleration of these consumptions,” he believes.

"If in addition the matches belong to a new player not very visible like Téléfoot in France, you accentuate this exit of the radar", adds Mr. Simon.

And "there is no longer such an obvious transmission of passion between the generations".

Football, like other professional sports, is faced with "the need to renew the audience base", and must therefore "very urgently find suitable content" ', believes Christophe Lepetit.

"We must anticipate, start going to test markets, like OM on Twitch," continues the economist.

The Olympique de Marseille, precisely, seeks to "adapt to this new generation and its ways of consuming, with double or even triple screen", develops the "Head of business", Hugues Ouvrard.

The leader is "not concerned, but vigilant" in the face of the problem.

"To say that since they watch less, they like football less, for me that's a shortcut. I don't think that a fringe of youth is moving away from football but rather that it is a little less exclusive", he nuances.

- "Football is less king" -

"Football was king, today it is a little less king, you have to deal with other attention collectors and even use them as levers", suggests Ouvrard.

OM is developing its Twitch channel in particular, and is pleased that of the 100 best Twitch audiences in 2020, if 98 are related to "gaming", the other two are two friendly matches of OM broadcast live this summer, with 266,000 unique viewers, and a peak of 100,000 viewers, "says the club.

OM is doing a lot to reach out to "Gen Z", with the launch of its urban music label OM Records, very polished player presentations on social networks, a partnership with Grizi Esport, the Griezmann brothers' esport club ...

In England, Manchester City is pursuing a similar strategy by partnering with the FaZe Clan, one of the biggest esports clubs, through Nate Hill, Fortnite champion and club fan.

The co-president of Saint-Étienne, Bernard Caïazzo, assures us that he is ready "to adapt" but "does not think that the passion for football can evolve".

"And then concerns, that's not what's missing in football at the moment, with empty stadiums and TV rights," he continues.

Pierre Maës, consultant and author of "The Football TV Rights Business" (FYP), also remains optimistic.

"We didn't find that ManU was selling less jerseys to young people, and if you tell me that they buy the jersey but don't watch the matches ..."

© 2021 AFP