Football shares limelight with social projects in France’s Olympic wonderland

Trust Arsène Wenger to inject an ethereal element into a live TV draw ceremony for a football tournament.

Urged to expand into the exuberance before the teams discovered their adversaries at the Paris Olympics, the former Arsenal boss maintained the detached demeanour that earned him the nickname The Professor during his time in north London.

Fabien Lévêque, the master of ceremonies, asked the 74-year-old if he had any words of wisdom for Thierry Henry and Hervé Renard as they awaited the names for the French men’s and women’s teams respectively.

Surveying the throng of administrators, former players and rent-a-glitterati, Wenger said: “Thierry and Hervé will have lots of support from me … but also my compassion.”

Ha, ha, Harsene. Honestly, who asked this one along?

Openers against US, Colombia

But the boy Lévêque was doing well. He quickly brought in Tony Estanguet, the boss of the Paris 2024 Olympics organising committee, to refire the vibrancy.

And the three-time gold medallist in canoeing duly stoked the audience with the requisite rousing rhetoric.

“I’m happy to see everyone,” Estanguet enthused. “Football is an important Olympic event. There are going to be 58 matches at seven stadiums around France.” 

The Vélodrome in Marseille will host the launch of the French men’s bid for Olympic glory on 24 July. After the opener against the United States, they will also play New Zealand and a team from the intercontinental play-offs.

The French women will start their campaign against Colombia in Lyon on 25 July. They will also face Canada in Saint-Etienne and New Zealand in Lyon.

More than sport

The draw for the Olympic football tournament, held at the swish headquarters of the organising committee in Aubervilliers on the northern outskirts of Paris, came amid a flurry of events aimed at highlighting the multitude of strands required for nearly three weeks of competitive events and the years beyond – the fabled “legacy” component of contemporary Olympic bidding processes.

On Monday, three government ministers will wander around wastelands 20-odd kilometres to the north of central Paris to coo at the slick transformation into lavish sports facilities and landscaped apartment blocks.

Back in the city centre on Thursday afternoon at Paris town hall, the 2006 Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus stopped off to say a few morale-boosting words to the bosses of several companies from the social and solidarity economy (SSE) who had won contracts at Olympic venues.

“I raised an issue and expressed my dissatisfaction about the sports world because it has a tremendous power but it hadn’t been using it for social purposes,” said Yunus of his decades-long campaigning to add another layer to the industrial sports complex.

“I told the administrators: ‘you have an Aladdin’s lamp but you don’t touch it and the genie doesn’t come out’. I said, ‘let’s touch it … let the genie come out and see what we want to tell the genie to do’.”

A shining example?

It was a clever coup a couple of years ago to appoint Yunus as SSE ambassador for the Paris Games. The 83-year-old Bangladeshi, who made his name pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance, has lent gravitas to the organising committee’s drive to promote inclusivity.

“Even now there are people lining up in other countries to follow Paris,” said Yunus. “And that’s because Paris opened up a door that had never been opened before. Paris has touched the lamp and the genie is coming out.”

He said even though the Winter Olympics passed through Pyeongchang five years ago, officials in the South Korean city had been in contact with their Parisian counterparts to discuss how social projects that had been promoted in and around Paris might work there.

“We’ve also been invited to talk to people in Milan for their 2026 Winter Olympics,” Yunus beamed.

“They too have been inspired by Paris. I have told them there is no magic in it, just simple ideas.

“So even before Paris has even had the Olympics, the world is already excited and looking at the leadership that you have given.”

Medal pressure

It was a sparkling vignette from an alpha motivator.

But for all such glittering worthiness, the vast majority of French spectators in the stadiums and watching on TV will gauge Olympic success in cold numbers.

In Tokyo, French athletes brought home 33 prizes – 10 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze. Rio’s haul of 10 gold 18 silver and 14 bronze was an improvement on the 11 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze from London in 2012.

Henry, 46, desperately needs the men’s football team to prosper not only for that medal tally but also to add heft to his managerial credentials.

Despite a lamentable five-month spell as manager of Monaco during which he oversaw 11 defeats, five draws and four wins, Henry beat off competition from more experienced operators such as Julien Stéphan, Jocelyn Gourvennec and Sabri Lamouchi to land the job to steer the French men’s under-23 side in the Olympics and the under-21 squad through a 2025 European championships qualifying campaign.

Great expectations

Women’s coach Renard, who has led teams in Europe, Africa and the Middle East during a 24-year career, at least possesses the nous for success at a major tournament. 

The 55-year-old led Zambia to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012 and Cote d’Ivoire to the same crown in 2015.

“France is my country,” said Renard just after the draw. “I have this country in my heart. I’m born in this country and even if I’ve travelled a lot all around the world, I’m still French.

“So for me, it’s a big honour to participate in this Olympic Games, especially with the French women’s national team.”

And Renard immediately showed his guile by slapping down one interviewer who was asking him about possible quarter-final opponents.

“I had to do that,” Renard added. “Because all the competitions are very tough, especially when there are only 12 teams. That means the level is very high and you have to respect all the opponents.

“We hope we will be at the level of the expectations because you can imagine the expectations are going to be very high. We have to live with the pressure. We have to be strong.”

The top two sides from the three pools of four advance automatically into the last eight along with the two best third-placed sides.

While the women’s team has never claimed gold, the French men were victorious in 1984 in Los Angeles.

Members of that title-winning squad were invited to the draw ceremony.

After the images of their surge to the crown were replayed to the audience, there was no wryness à la Wenger, simply sustained applause for their feats and a golden air of collective pride.