Football in France

Football in France
The Parc des Princes is the home of Paris Saint-Germain
CountryFrance
Governing bodyFFF
National team(s)France (men) • France (women)
First played1863; 161 years ago (1863)
Registered players2.1 million[1]
Clubs18,194
National competitions
Club competitions
International competitions
France at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Association football is the most popular sport in France.[2][3] In 2024, 53% of people in France declared an interest in football, with 26% being very interested.[4] The French Football Federation (FFF, Fédération Française de Football) is the national governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of association football in the country, both professional and amateur.[5][6] The federation organizes the Coupe de France and is responsible for appointing the management of the men's, women's, and youth national football teams in France. The federation gives responsibility of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 to the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) who oversee, organize, and manage the country's top two leagues. The LFP is also responsible for organizing the Coupe de la Ligue, the country's league cup competition. The French Football Federation also supervises the overseas departments and territories leagues and hosts football club AS Monaco, a club based in the independent sovereign state of Monaco. In 2022, the FFF had 2.1 million licensees, 1.8 million players and 14,000 registered clubs, the second highest number of registered players in Europe after Germany.[1]

The first football club was introduced to France in 1863 as described in a newspaper article by The Scotsman, which stated "A number of English gentlemen living in Paris have lately organised a football club... The football contests take place in the Bois de Boulogne, by permission of the authorities and surprise the French amazingly."[7] Modern football was introduced nine years later in 1872 by English sailors playing in Le Havre in 1872.[8]

Today, football in France is especially being played successfully by people of non-European origin, in particular people of Subsaharan origin and people from North Africa who are overrepresented in the Banlieue.[9] The importance of players of non-European origin is also reflected in the composition of the French World Cup winning team where only six of the 23 players were of European descent.[10]

France is a football superpower; by its footballers playing around the world, according to the CIES Football Observatory, in 2023, France is the second country in the world behind Brazil, with the most footballers playing abroad with 1,033.[11] According to Statista, of the estimated 130,000 professional football players worldwide, 6,368 originated from France, the third highest number in the world after Brazil (10,694) and Mexico (9,223).[12]

  1. ^ a b "Le budget et les chiffres clés". French Football Federation. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)(the last successful archive is 2021 statistics: 1.9 million licensees, 1.8 million players and 15,000 clubs.)
  2. ^ "Popular sports in France". Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Sport in France". Topend Sports. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  4. ^ TGM Research. "TGM Euro Survey in France 2024". TGM Research. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  5. ^ "A French paradox: multicultural celebrities are popular, but so is Le Pen". The Independent. January 2012. Archived from the original on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  6. ^ "France's Aversion To Its National Soccer Team". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 January 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  7. ^ The Scotsman newspaper, 22 December 1863, page 8
  8. ^ "History of Football". Ifhof.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  9. ^ "La place du sport dans les quartiers populaires". Impulsion. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  10. ^ "Who Wins When France Claims the World Cup?". The Athletic. 19 July 2018. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ "Brazil breaks ranking record of exported players. France rank second, England fourth". 26 September 2023. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  12. ^ "Number of men's professional soccer players worldwide in 2021, by country of origin". 26 September 2023. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.