Direction Milan for the French football team, for the last day of the Nations League. The Blues will try, on Sunday November 17 against Italy, to forget the sad evening of Thursday against Israel, marked by a heavy security context at the Stade de France and a sad 0-0 on the pitch.
The French, already qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition, must therefore show a better face for this last international match of the year. But in recent months, the gap has widened between the Blues and the French public, between controversies, boring play, and falling television audiences.
The popularity of the Blues has already taken a serious hit this summer, with a laborious and soporific Euro, despite a semi-final lost to Spain. The latest episodes of the Kylian Mbappé soap opera, with many twists and turns in recent weeks around the designated captain, but who will still be absent on Sunday, have not helped anything. Franceinfo noticed this with several football fans, including Paul, who trains young people in Villejuif, in Val-de-Marne, near Paris.
“We hear a lot of extra-sporting stories around the French team and we see less encouraging performances than before. We have a cycle which ends with the retirements of Olivier Giroud and other players (Hugo Lloris, Raphaël Varane and recently Antoine Griezmann). The dynamic must resume.”Paul hopes.
The latest indicators do not show any improvement in the short term, with TV audiences in free fall for many months. The Blues only attracted an average of just under 5 million viewers during Nations League matches. “These are old friendly matches, it’s not very attractive. People no longer watch the matches which are not at stake. They are just waiting to see the final of the next World Cup, to see if we will win it”estimates Rachid, who was present in Saint-Denis for the draw against Israel.
The supporters point the finger at the number of meetings, too high for their taste, but above all they point to a culprit. “We’re just waiting for Deschamps to leave. Today, he’s the conductor, he decides everything and creates the atmosphere. If we change coaches, we’ll change the atmosphere and the people will want to watch this French team again”judge Matthias, also present at the Stade de France against Israel.
The situation is serious, but not desperate, according to journalist Vincent Duluc, who has followed the Blues for more than 25 years for the newspaper The Team. Disenchantment “was already more acute after the 2002 World Cup (elimination in the first round) and especially after the 2010 World Cup, where there was a real break between public opinion and the French teamremembers Vincent Duluc, about the strike of the Blues in the middle of the World Cup in South Africa, causing a national scandal. There, there is a disillusioned side, but also a comparative one, since we are coming out of an Olympic summer which highlighted the whims and different mentalities in the French team. To regain its place, football will have to change.”
The Italy-France figures will be scrutinized again, but also compared to those of the French XV, heroic on Saturday evening, against New Zealand. In terms of audiences, the rugby Blues are now close behind those of football.
