|
Cool France wakes up to soccer fever
Croatia stands between host nation and final berth
Posted: Wednesday July 08, 1998 10:59 AM
| |
The French have embraced their team over the last month (AP) |
PARIS (Reuters) -- While the Brazilians
danced in the streets and the Scots partied under the Eiffel Tower, the
French remained largely immune to the passions of the World Cup.
But now, with their team one match away from France's first
final in 68 years of trying, the host nation has shaken off its soccer
torpor and taken the team to heart.
"Les Bleus at the threshold of legend," said the usually unexcitable
Le Figaro newspaper in a front-page headline on Wednesday ahead of
the squad's semi-final clash against Croatia later
in the day.
Support for the soccer team, known at The Blues, has grown steadily as
France has made its uncertain way through the competition, culminating in a
massive street party along the elegant Champs Elysee last Friday when the
French knocked out Italy in the
quarterfinals.
In a country which is traditionally reticent about soccer, reserving its
sporting fervor for the annual Tour de France cycling race, the new found
passion for the World Cup has surprised even the French players.
"We really have amazing public support. You see fans with the tricolour
painted on their faces, celebrating in the streets. It is something we have
never seen in France," said French captain Didier Deschamps.
Reflecting the public mood, France's newspapers have devoted more and
more copy to the team, while politicians have been scrambling over
themselves to outdo each other with their soccer similes.
France's conservative President Jacques Chirac told the nation he would
like to be a goalkeeper, while Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said
he used to play as goalkeeper but now saw himself as both a coach and a
playmaker.
"I am a team leader. I am a player manager, let us say a combination of
[French coach Aime] Jacquet and [midfielder Zinedine] Zidane," the premier
said in a radio interview.
The fact that France has no star strikers and has scored just one goal in
its last four hours of open football, has done nothing to dampen media
interest.
Liberation daily, which normally reserves a few paragraphs to sport, gave
over its first five pages to Wednesday's semi-final and Le Parisien
reserved its first nine pages for the match, with four more thrown in later
for good measure.
"Everyone wants the World Cup," was France's motto in 1991 when it
launched its bid to host the Cup, but when it finally got to host the
competition the reality proved quite different.
One poll prior to the start of the soccer fest said that 70 percent of
French women were indifferent to the tournament. Now women are flocking to
the stadiums, big screens and street parties to watch the games-- won over
by the emotion.
"There were moments when I had tears in my eyes ... I understand what the
fans feel," said new-found soccer convert, French actress Beatrice Dalle,
after seeing a World Cup game.
But despite the undoubted interest being generated by the French team's
success, the passion has not yet reached the fever pitch seen in other
countries.
The biggest television audience for France's first round games was some
13 million, half that of the biggest audience in Britain for one of England's early
matches.
French fans are noticeably less raucous than their Southern American or
Northern European counterparts and Le Figaro on Wednesday exhorted
them at Wednesday's game to copy the incessant singing belted out by
English supporters.
"This is an appeal to the people, a cry of hope. Monsieur, Madame,
Mademoiselle, guys, whoever you are and wherever you sit in the Stade de
France tonight, France needs you," the paper said. "Let yourselves go!"
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| 
