Welcome to the Biteback Book Festival! For a week, we'll be posting interviews, think-pieces and more by some of our amazing authors right here- and it starts with this post by French footballing guru Matt Spiro.

 

Football, as the world’s most popular and accessible sport, is regarded as a mirror for society in many countries. But nowhere is that notion stronger than in modern-day France. No single activity reflects the nation’s rich ethnic and social diversity as vividly as the beautiful game does. In France, white faces remain prevalent in the media, in politics and on television shows, but the national football team – with its multi-cultural makeup – provides a sharp and refreshing contrast.

For black and Maghrebi children growing up in France’s underprivileged suburbs, the future invariably looks bleak. It would appear French society continues to condition these youngsters, most of whom are of immigrant backgrounds, to believe that certain professions and positions of responsibility are quite simply not for them.

Football, though, does not adhere to those rules. If you are good enough, you get your chance. That’s the way it should be in any occupation of course, but whilst researching ‘Sacré Bleu’ I realised that this is most definitely not the case in France. Speaking to Lilian Thuram, I was alarmed to hear his stories of discrimination. In my mind, the former France, Juventus and Barcelona defender, who won the World Cup in 1998, is a footballing legend. To imagine that he was racially abused as a child, that he was refused entry to restaurants and suffered monkey chants as a player, simply beggars belief.

I am, above all, a football journalist. I love commentating and writing about the game. It is my passion. But since I moved to France in 2002, I have been fascinated by the wider ramifications of football here. I was struck by the fact that black footballers were among the few to speak out in support of the disillusioned youths at the heart of the social unrest in 2005. When Les Bleus disgraced themselves by going on strike at the 2010 World Cup, the bizarre way in which politicians linked the players bad behaviour to unruly thugs in France’s les banlieues took me aback.

What is clear is that Les Bleus possess extraordinary power. Aimé Jacquet’s black-blanc-beur (black-white-Arab) World Cup-winning team was hailed as a beacon for society. Football became a symbol in 1998, a unifying force, Les Bleus a national treasure and veritable institution. But Zinédine Zidane’s generation was placed on a pedestal that would prove impossible to live up to.

Until 2018, that is. This book looks at the journey France has been on over the last twenty years, the wider responsibility that footballers have had to take on, and the many rifts that have been fuelled by social and racial tensions. When Kylian Mbappé inspired France’s second World Cup triumph, the nation again celebrated as one. This time, though, nobody was kidding themselves regarding the potential wider sociological consequences. Football is capable of setting an example – that much we now know. But the rest of society still has plenty of work to do to catch up.

 

Matt's upcoming book, Sacré Bleu, is out on 12th May. Find out more about it and pre-order it here.