Paris (AFP)

Promised for months by the government, the future sports law finally carried by the LREM majority includes consensual measures, such as parity in the federations, but three years before the Paris Olympics, the initial ambition has been largely ratified.

It was to be a great law on sport and society, already promised by the former Minister of Sports Laura Flessel, and intended to encourage the practice of sport.

Another objective: to have 3 million additional practitioners by 2024 when Paris will host the Olympic Games.

The Covid has been there.

Ultimately, it is a modest bill of eleven articles that will be debated in the Assembly from Wednesday, in the context of the health crisis that puts professional and especially amateur sport on the mat.

"If some people are nostalgic for what this text could have been, it has the merit of existing", admitted Celine Calvez (LREM), one of the three rapporteurs.

It is true that some feared that they would never see it happen.

The text essentially includes measures on the governance of sports federations: full parity, limit to three the number of terms of office for a president, obligation of transparency extended to elected members of federations, leagues or the French Olympic committee.

It formally legalizes the platform intended to fight against rigged bets, and also contains a device intended to fight against illegal streaming in sports, which has exploded in recent years.

Initially, a measure was provided for in the audiovisual bill, which is currently dormant.

The Génération.s deputy Régis Juanico regrets that the measures do not apply to the current elections in the federations, and hoped for a text "which sets out public policies on sport-health, sport at school, sport in professional environment, sport a factor of inclusion ".

- Good repute check -

And fears that the text appears "out of step with the strong expectations of sports players in the field".

Ambition disappointed also for Maxime Minot (LR): even if the text goes "in the right direction", it does not "deal with the development of sports practice".

"Three years before the Games, French sport does not shine as much as it should," regretted for her part the deputy Béatrice Descamps (UDI), who nevertheless welcomed "advances" on streaming and federations.

"It is not the content of the text that bothers us but its absences", summarized Elsa Faucillon (PCF).

In committee, the deputies specified that the supervisors henceforth subjected to the control of integrity in the same way as the sports educators also included the sports judges, the referees and the lifeguards.

This integrity check is also being extended to volunteers, whereas for the past year cases of sexual violence, sometimes going back years, have been piling up in unprecedented ways.

- TV pirates -

The better consideration of the voice of the athletes, by making them participate more in federal bodies, was proposed by several deputies but was narrowly challenged.

Another aborted amendment, that of the LREM rapporteur Cédric Roussel, on the possibility of creating a commercial company by the professional leagues for the marketing and management of audiovisual exploitation rights, as strongly desired by the Professional Football League (LFP).

The amendment was withdrawn but the debate could return to a public session.

Mr. Roussel also defended the measure intended to fight against illegal streaming with a legal procedure providing for "blocking, removal or delisting of sites illegally retransmitting a sports competition broadcast live".

"During the last Clasico (OM-PSG, editor's note), there were more pirates watching TV than subscribers and subscribers!", Explained the deputy.

Another consensual measure: facilitate access to school equipment for clubs, when these are sometimes unused, and which will concern the first and second degree.

In addition to the problem of access, there is often the question of liability for uses outside school hours.

© 2021 AFP