FRANCE 98 – Communique Template

32 countries, 10 cities, 33 days….a celebration! This is how “FRANCE 98: A CELEBRATION” the guide recently completed by the French Organising Committee can be summed up. It lists all the main entertainments being staged in the 10 host cities during the World Cup.

This guide provides further evidence of what Michel Platini and Fernand Sastre, the CFO Presidents have stated time and again, “that above and beyond the event itself, FRANCE 98 should also be 33 days of fun, conviviality and shared emotions”.

Created and produced in close collaboration with the Gallimard publishing house, this 256-page bilingual English/French guidebook does much more than simply present the hundreds of cultural, artistic and sporting events which are to take place away from the stadiums between 10 June and 13 July in Bordeaux, Lens, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse.

“FRANCE 98: A CELEBRATION” is also a practical guidebook which, in each chapter, prompts tourists and visitors alike to set out and discover the many cultural attractions and sights in the 10 Host cities and their regions.

With a preface by Michel Platini and Fernand Sastre bidding foreign visitors “Welcome to FRANCE 98” for the World Cup, the guide is divided into three sections: Welcome to France, The World Cup and The FRANCE 98 host cities.

The guide, 200,000 copies of which have been printed, will not be on sale to the general public. The CFO will, rather, be handing it out to the 13,000 journalists who will be coming to France from around the world, the 12,000 Volunteers who will be taking part in the World Cup organisation, and the various official delegations from the 32 participating countries. It will also be distributed to the various bodies involved in organising the tournament (host cities, public authorities, the French Football Federation, FIFA and so on) for their communication drives before and during the competition.