April 1997 – N°24 – Report – ENGLISH
April 1997 – N°24 REPORT
Organising the matches
GAMES AND STAKES ON THE GREEN When a player forgets to place his stake before the game begins, “the baize burns”, as casino parlance has it… As far as organising the sporting aspects of the World Cup goes, there’s no question of waiting till the players arrive on the pitch before sorting out all the details of the competition! Especially since the missions to be carried out by the French Organising Committee, in close collaboration with FIFA’s Organising Committee, go far beyond the actual playing surface. Game on!
105×68 m, the dimensions laid down by FIFA for all World Cup playing fields.
105X68 m
A World Cup match doesn’t just boil down to a sporting battle between two national teams for 90 minutes, not by a long shot! Beforehand, the national associations taking part, as well as the referees and the officials, have to be made at home; their high level of preparation must be maintained; top-class transport between venues must be organised for them; all the necessary infrastructures have to be placed at their disposal; a whole network of ball collectors and medical staff has to be sorted out… there are a thousand and one tasks needing watertight logistics, and these the FIFA World Cup Organising Committee has delegated to the French Organising Committee together with a highly-detailed schedule of conditions.
Balance, equality, entertainment
The competition schedule was first put forward by the CFO, then rubber-stamped by FIFA. In a revolutionary move, the number of teams participating was increased from 24 to 32, which, as well as making the competition more interesting and entertaining, has an important consequence in terms of the schedule itself. As a result, the event will last for 33 days (as opposed to 31 previously), and will involve 64 matches (i.e. twelve more than last time)!
The organisation of the matches centred on three priorities: balance, sporting equality and entertainment value.
Balance because, as opposed to previous World Cups, each team will play its three first-round matches in three different stadiums.
Sporting equality, because contrary to tradition, there will be no special advantage from playing in the same stadium, even for the seeded teams. It will be remembered that in the 1994 World Cup, Italy in New York and Brazil in San Francisco gained enormous encouragement from the large crowds of their respective ex-patriots that came to swell the ranks of their supporters.
Finally, entertainment value, because each city will be hosting between nine and twelve different teams, at least two of which will be seeded, as well as a round of sixteen or a quarter-final match. This is a programme guaranteeing a prospect of fantastic variety for spectators, including the chance to appreciate the widely differing footballing styles of teams from all over the world.
The novelty of the FRANCE 98 schedule is an approach fully justified by Michel Platini, co-President of the CFO: “We just wanted as many people in France to see it as possible! The important thing for us is to keep the teams moving around…In addition, all the venues in France are close together, and with five or six days between each match, I don’t imagine there’ll be any problem with the teams keeping to the pace.”
To forestall any possible criticisms of the match schedule, the French Organising Committee has pulled out all the stops as regards logistics, and has made it a priority to offer infrastructures of the highest quality, so that day-to-day business for all the teams will be as trouble-free as possible.
Appropriate accomodation The CFO’s Logistics department, run by Odile Lanceau, has consequently been carrying out stringent research on suitable places capable of accommodating the 32 team delegations in top-class conditions. Eighty establishments were given a thorough vetting to begin with, before sixty of them were finally selected for the hotel list offered to the teams. This means an average of 6 or 7 choices of hotel per venue, giving the delegations plenty of room for manœuvre. These hotels naturally have to fulfil certain pre-requisites, and in particular must be able to offer a minimum of 35 rooms to accommodate a 40-strong delegation (22 players and 18 persons in charge), an ideal configuration, meaning that FIFA can assume the total cost.
However, in 1998, certain delegations will be bigger than others, such as Germany’s (provided that it qualifies ), which could include more than 80 people. They don’t do things by halves on the other side of the Rhine! But any extra forces will be paid for by the football federation in the delegation’s own country.
Apart from the right number of rooms, hotels must be able to ensure the peace and quiet necessary for teams to prepare calmly for the event. They must be within 15 minutes of a training ground, and offer certain facilities (for example, a swimming pool, gym, treatment room and jacuzzi). Selecting suitable places was not an easy task, even though France has a highly sophisticated hotel system, for the CFO imposed fairly stringent conditions. It goes without saying that nothing in the hotel like a business seminar – or even worse, a wedding reception – should disturb the players at any point during their stay!
Another tricky aspect is making room for the special chef that each team will be bringing along to ensure that their usual eating habits are not disrupted. The Italians might well be glad to have their pasta correctly cooked, “al dente”, and the South Americans to have food that is sufficiently spicy for them, but French chefs are bound to view this gastronomic co-habitation – not to say invasion – with a somewhat jaundiced eye!
The CFO has called upon the hotel group Accor, world leader in the company hotels and services sector, to help in this considerable assignment, and has been working closely with Mondiresa, the central reservation system dedicated exclusively to the FIFA-FRANCE 98 World Cup.
Officers and gentlemen No stone is being left unturned in the business of organising the World Cup, and the training grounds are no exception. “After selecting the hotels, we made a list of 150 training grounds meeting certain requirements, and have inspected them all,” says Jacques Grospeillet, the head of the Competition department of the CFO. “To qualify, the grounds had to satisfy three criteria: pitches and infrastructures (well-equipped changing rooms, flood-lighting etc.), security (if requested, the training sessions should be able to be conducted behind closed doors) and proximity to the hotels.”
The CFO also has to provide a reception team for each delegation, consisting of a liaison officer, who will interface 24 hours a day with the organisational side and sort out all problems concerning supplies, and three security officers.
Another of the Committee’s priorities is ensuring that each delegation’s numerous transfers take place with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of comfort. For each local journey, all the delegations will be assigned a fleet of vehicles, driven by chauffeurs from the organisation, comprising a coach, a mini- van, two private cars and a luggage vehicle.
Referee care “Only the best for the referees, that’s also one of our concerns,” says Joèl Quiniou former international referee, and project leader in the CFO’s competition department.
Joël Quiniou (centre)
The referees will also be given particular care and attention. “The success of a World Cup is vitally dependent not only on the quality of play from the teams, but also on the quality of refereeing,” explains Joèl Quiniou, project leader in the competition department at the CFO. He is a man who really knows his field, having refereed around a hundred international matches, and taken part in three World Cups, notably refereeing the semi-final in the 1994 World Cup between Italy and Bulgaria, and the third-place play-off in the 1990 World Cup.
“The scale of the event places a huge burden on the shoulders of the referee, and he has to really de-dramatise the situation and keep a cool head. That way, he’ll be at the top of his form on the pitch…That’s why the CFO is taking care to provide the best possible welcome for the referees.”
The 64 referees taking part in the FIFA-FRANCE 98 World Cup will be put up in a hotel in the north of Paris, ideally situated for Roissy airport and the TGV train station, and therefore a perfect spring-board for all the venues in the competition, regardless of their location. There, the “men in black” will have all the facilities they need: physical and medical check-ups, training grounds, translation services and efficient transport.
Bench mark Finally, the changing rooms, a zone where emotions run high before and after a match, have to be equipped in accordance with a highly-detailed schedule of conditions drawn up in collaboration with FIFA.
These include a minimum surface-area of 70m2, with seats and lockable lockers, for a team of 22 players and 3 coaches (i.e. ten more people than in a standard official match). Even the team bench on the touch-line has to be longer in the World Cup than in a league game!
Emergencies A medical structure will be set up at all the venues. Each stadium will be equipped with a players’ sick bay, overseen by an official CFO doctor with the double qualification of sports physician and emergency resuscitator. He or she will be working together with the doctors from each delegation. “If, for instance, a player is hurt during a match and is lying on the ground, priority in giving him first aid goes to the team doctor.
But if the injured person’s distress is too great, particularly if a fracture is diagnosed, the official CFO doctor will then take charge,” explains Doctor Nahon, the Deputy General Manager/Doctor. A team of “pitch” auxiliaries will also be on hand with a small electric vehicle to facilitate the evacuation of any injured parties.
Ball boys and girls As we know, the organisers are particularly keen to involve young people in the World Cup. The CFO and the FFF have therefore decided to enrol 14 ball boys/girls for each match, to be replaced at half-time by another team of 14, instead of the 10 ball-collectors originally planned for the entire match under the schedule of conditions. This is one of the initiatives taken on behalf of young people, among many others to be unveiled at a later date by the CFO.
Rigorous protocol From the order in which the teams, referees and officials come onto the field to the organisation of the curtain-raisers; from the performing of the official national anthems to the application of security measures, FIFA has to synchronise every single detail in a World Cup match with infinite precision. And no wonder – for with 37 billion in cumulative television audiences expected, and 2.5 million spectators in the stands, FRANCE 98 will truly be THE event at the end of the century.
