FRANCE 98 – Press Release Template
Paris, 24 November 1997
La Française des Jeux,
Official Lottery to FRANCE 98On Monday 24 November, Fernand Sastre and Michel Platini, Presidents of the French Organising Committee, signed an agreement with Bertrand de Gallé, the President and Chief Executive Officer of La Française des Jeux, making the latter the Official Lottery to FRANCE 98 in the realm of “Official Products and Services”.
In recent years, La Française des Jeux has shown an interest in football second to none. It has partnered the French League Championship since 1995 and developed a corporate sports sponsorship programme in which football takes pride of place. It could be said, in fact, that when it comes to company communications, football is part of its “strikeforce”.
Quite naturally, then, it has teamed up with the planet’s highest sporting prize: the FIFA World Cup. La Française des Jeux has always identified with football’s popular appeal, founded in the purest sporting tradition. With two of its football-based games already on sale in the shops, the company could not possibly miss the opportunity to “tackle” an event of this magnitude.
Its World Cup partnership was made public on 24 November 1997, and on 1 December La Française des Jeux will be launching its first purely descriptive event-related game with a limited sales-span: the FRANCE 98 game, which will be on sale for 8 months only, until the end of July 1998.
La Française des Jeux becomes the 9th and last company to join the Official World Cup Products and Services group after Air France, APC, CPW/Nestlé Céréales, Cyanamid, Lavazza, LG, Michelin and Total.
This last agreement, which takes the number of World Cup commercial affiliates up to 45, also brings an end to the FRANCE 98 marketing programme.