Battle over football between French and British

My Saturday morning in Paris more or less followed this program, at least before the pandemic arose. Waking up way too early, mobilizing my two boys and, guided by Google Maps, crossing the ring road – that is to say, plunging into a completely different world. The separation between Paris and its suburbs always makes me think of the one that distinguished, in South Africa under apartheid, the white and rich neighborhoods of Johannesburg, where my grandparents lived, and the black township of Soweto.

Every Saturday its new suburb, which most of the time resembles the sloppy superposition of a Soviet city and a faded French village. Let’s take Villejuif (Val-de-Marne): after passing fast food restaurants and seedy apartment buildings, we arrive at the Karl-Marx stadium, opposite the crèche of the same name. On the new generation artificial lawn, financed by the State, the hierarchy that traditionally prevails in France reigns: the parents, who are only the family, parked behind a barrier, at a good distance, while the agents of the State – duly qualified coaches – president of activities.

Boys of all colors play football games which are generally impressive. We must keep the score in mind, because no final result is promulgated because of the skilful strategy put in place by the French Football Federation to pacify the matches between young players. At lunchtime, we are already back home, happy to be able to warm up.

These sports mornings help me understand how France was able to win the 2018 World Cup, with a team rich in players from the Paris suburbs. As a British expatriate in France, I gradually notice something else: if you are the world champions on the ground, we are too, but in the stands. The crucial skills that football requires are shared equally between our two peoples.

The stadium replaces the mass

The Victorian Britons invented most of the sport of the modern era, but they saw no point in competing against outsiders. It was the prerogative of the Parisian bourgeois to organize the first international competitions, from the Football World Cup to the Olympic Games. Britons happily continued to practice sport, especially at school, until Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sold thousands of school sports pitches in the 1980s. If you ever find yourself pushing a cart in a supermarket in the UK, take a moment to honor the memory of the countless goals that may have once been scored here.

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