" There will be a before and after 2019 World Cup " for women's football, welcomed at the end of the competition Brigitte Henriques, vice-president of the French Football Federation. While the championship of France played on the weekend of November 2 and 3, its eighth day, the thrill exists but it remains far from the promised revolution for clubs.
Like the French hierarchy that has not moved – the top five places are occupied by the same teams in the same ranking, the influx to the stadium remains similar for most clubs, apart from the gala posters.
At the top of the hexagonal women's football are once again, and far ahead, the two giants, Paris and Lyon. After a good first game, with more than 1,900 spectators for the Olympique de Marseille reception, promoted this season, the Olympique Lyonnais continues to attract more audiences, but smaller: 1,152 people for the reception of Fleury (881 last season) during the 3e day or 1,369 for Bordeaux (1,090) in the seventh. Brands that would be respectively 2e and 4e influxes of the season 2018-2019.
The meetings between mastodons of the first division drain the most people, with the record attendance of 25,907 spectators reached in April 2019 during an OL-PSG. This season, the first Champions Trophy between the two teams gathered more than 12,000 people at the Roudourou stadium in Guingamp on September 21st.
Paris and Lyon attract everywhere
Paris and Lyon remain ultradominations and the championship will be played again on their double confrontation. The first leg looms after the truce. And the Lyonnaises are still a little ahead of PSG, despite a surprising draw conceded in Dijon (0-0), then the last of the championship. The only surprise, so far, of a season that they always dominate outrageously: despite this zero and virgin mark, the thirteen times champions of France in title keep an average of 4.5 goals scored per game.
The joy of the Dijonnaises at the final whistle! #DFCOOL https://t.co/Tx1LrF8Q1K
These posters allow to mobilize the other clubs: the match of Reims against Lyon, like the one to come against Paris, was played at the stadium Auguste-Delaune, the den of the men's team of Ligue 1. The attraction effect is such that the champions of Europe lyonnaises play in front of more people outside than at home: in Reims more than 3,000 spectators. The next home game of the Rémoises, against Fleury, played in a stadium of the training center Raymond-Kopa, was followed by ten times fewer people.
" It is also played out at the infrastructure level. In Reims, we played in the training center, we had to walk five minutes to go from the cloakroom to the field "Says Sylvain Carric, Fleury's sport coordinator (Division 1).
With the exception of the top duo, the stadiums still sound hollow, with 223 spectators for Metz-Soyaux (less than the 291 of the previous season), two teams used to the games of the first division. The spectators were only 215 when the last all-female club of the first division was moved to Fleury.
" There are a few more spectators, but it's not obvious. Not enough to evoke a "world cup effect" ", Believes the coach of Soyaux, current 6e of the championship, Sébastien Joseph. "For the moment, it is better to play in small adapted stages. The PSG plays Jean-Bouin, but even if their affluence is much higher, it sounds hollow. "
"Learn English"
Soyaux, who moved this season to Angouleme the time to improve his stadium, also feels the oversize: with a capacity of 6,500 seats, the stadium is filled with just over 450 spectators in each game. "Infrastructure is paramount and you have to work on it. It's better also to make good pictures on TV ", where the meetings have been broadcast by Canal + since last season.
The female teams of clubs installed in the French landscape are not much better off: 292 spectators for a Montpellier-Dijon (twice higher than last year anyway), 354 for the reception of Metz, even if again the public has been doubled. Montpellier is however accustomed to the podium of the first division, whose players were champions in 2004 and 2005, before the hegemony of Lyon.
On the other side of the Channel, the momentum was more marked: England had a first record day with five games out of six over 1,000 spectators, including two well-filled posters: 31 000 people for the Manchester derby and 24,500 for a London shock Tottenham-Chelsea.
"On the sporting level, the English are still late. On the other hand, on the craze and the facilities, one must learn from them », Judge Sylvain Carric.
Worn by the semifinal at the French World Cup, the English are preparing to beat the record of spectators for a women's match in Europe: 90,000 people have reserved their place for the friendly against Germany in Wembley, November 9.
In France, the popular momentum is also maintained for the national team: the players of Corinne Deacon were watched by 1.2 million viewers during their friendly against Spain in early September. There at least one "After World Cup" is noticed.
