Outside the Beltway

The French Take Their Football Seriously

Steven L. Taylor · Wednesday, June 23, 2010 · 5 comments

France’s World Cup team utterly imploded this past week and now the President is getting involved. Via the BBC: World Cup 2010: Nicolas Sarkozy to probe French failure.

I must confess, to my American eye the above headline looks a bit odd. However, when there is a cabinet level minister of sports, there are grounds for government involvement:

Prime Minister Francois Fillon, sports minister Roselyne Bachelot and junior sports minister Rama Yade will join Sarkozy to discuss how a country that won the World Cup in 1998 and reached the final in 2006 could manage just one point and a single goal at the 2010 edition.

FILED UNDER: Europe, Sports, BBC, France, Nicolas Sarkozy, soccer, World Cup

About Steven L. Taylor

Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

Chris Berez says:

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 at 18:54

I would point out how ridiculous it is to have a minister of sports, but we practically have that here anyway– only we call it Congress.

*sigh*
Steve Plunk says:

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 at 19:45

Football? Oh, you mean soccer.
Talmadge East says:

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 at 21:32

Oh, the travesty!!! I don’t even know how to properly make fun of this. Maybe we can send them Orrin Hatch.
Franklin says:

Thursday, 24 June 2010 at 00:32

Football? Oh, you mean soccer.

It does seem that football is a more appropriate name for soccer than football.
Talmadge East says:

Thursday, 24 June 2010 at 00:54

I don’t know, “association football” or “soccer” seems just fine by me.