Press Kits

FRANCE 98 Commercial Affiliates
of the World Cup Organising Committee

Eight companies of international stature have already been chosen to become Official Commercial Affiliates of FRANCE 98, the French Organising Committee of the World Cup. After EDS, France Telecom, la Poste, Sybase, Crédit Agricole and Manpower, Danone is the latest Commercial Affiliate to have teamed up with the French Organising Committee.

With 15 months to go before the kick-off of the final competition, FRANCE 98 can thus show a more than satisfactory result for its commercialisation programme for the 1998 World Cup, for which the objective was to have a total of eight major companies working as a team with FRANCE 98.

Credit Agricole
Official Bank of the 1998 World Cup

On 25 March 1996, the French Organising Committee and the Crédit Agricole announced the agreement which makes the leading French bank the official bank of the 1998 Football World Cup and the distributor of the tickets reserved to the general public.

As far back as 1989, the Crédit Agricole gave its backing to the candidature of France for the organisation of the World Cup, the great event of the end of this century devoted to the most popular sport in France and the world.

This partnership fits into the Crédit Agricole’s long-standing commitment to amateur football. The French Football Federation and the regional head offices of the Crédit Agricole come together each year to organise the “Challenge de l¹Offensive” competition which mobilizes over a million FFF licensees each year.

As Official Bank of the World Cup, the Crédit Agricole is also putting its decentralized group structure and network located throughout the country at the service of all French people to facilitate their access to tickets. Information and booking facilities are available in all the bank’s branches starting since November 1996.

As a bank closely involved in contributing to local development, the Crédit Agricole demonstrates its commitment through this slogan which will accompany all its communication and promotional actions right into 1998: “Making the heart of our regions beat to the world’s rhythm”.

DANONE
Official dairy products of the 1998 World Cup

Danone is France’s largest food group, ranking third in Europe and seventh worldwide. It is the world’s leading producer of fresh dairy products.

Danone’s partnership with the 1998 World Cup is in perfect keeping with its role as a producer of fresh dairy products. The nature of the products and their nutritional qualities are extremely important to sports enthusiasts, whether amateur or professionnal. In countries around the world, Danone is synonymous with health, fitness and well-being.

The agreement also reflects Danone’s strategic commitment to making “Danone” a major international brand and reference point for consumers worldwide. This was the reason behind BSN’s decision to adopt the Danone name in 1994, and sales under the Danone brand already top FF20 billion a year.

The 1998 World Cup will be the biggest sporting event in the closing years of this century, attracting media coverage far greater than the Olympic Games, since the cumulated audience is expected to reach 37 billion. It thus offers a unique opportunity to enhance recognition of the Danone brand around the world, in particular in countries where it is already represented.

Danone will be making an active contribution to the success of this event which, by its scale and impact, will also help to enhance the international standing of its home country, France.

EDS
Official Supplier of Information Technology Services

A new challenge

Success in sport, more than in any other field, is never a foregone conclusion. To win, we have to surpass ourselves all the time. Which is why the commitment of EDS to sport is constantly growing.

The men and women of EDS help individuals and organisations to excel by harnessing the power of information to achieve outstanding results.

To help racing cars set new records, EDS developed a system that provides teams with real-time feedback on every aspect of a car’s performance, at the speed of light and during the race.

Using wind tunnels and sophisticated computers, EDS is helping to design and build bicycles that can go faster than ever before.

At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, EDS helped to design and operate the computer system which delivered the most detailed and accurate information ever provided at the Olympic Games.

During the 1994 Football World Cup, EDS systems handled everything from accommodation and airline reservations to accreditations, as well as the most comprehensive news service ever offered to journalists. This event, taking place in nine venues over one month and involving 24 teams, set a new standard for smoothness and efficiency.

Sport represents the essence of competition, both on the field and off it. It provides an opportunity for the world’s best to surpass themselves.

EDS welcomes with enthusiasm the challenge of “FRANCE 98”.

France Telecom
Official Telecommunications Operator of the World Cup

A major challenge

The French Organising Committee selected France Telecom to take on the overall responsibility for the telecommunications of the World Cup in the fields of voice calls, and data and image transmission. An official telecommunications operator to the 1998 World Cup, France Telecom was chosen from competing international bids for its leading-edge expertise, its know-how in integrating telecommunication services, the quality, security and reliability of its services and for the competitiveness of its bid.

The France Telecom group, with sales amounting to FF 146.6 billion in 1994, is the fourth largest telecommunications operator in the world. For over a month, the teams of France Telecom will be providing all the most efficient means of communication for the 300 CFO members, the 10,000 organisers and the 9,500 journalists who will be sending out news to the whole world. France Telecom will be supplying the equipment, services and staff needed to carry through the project, and to design, install, supervise and maintain the various systems.

Thanks to France Telecom, the 37 billion TV viewers throughout the world, whatever their distance from France, will be able to follow the 64 matches played in the ten host cities and share in the same emotions and enthusiasm. France Telecom will be offering a wide range of services addressed to all. Its multifaceted activity and vision of the world enable France Telecom to share the same universal values with the world’s number one sport: football. The 168,000 men and women of the France Telecom group will be demonstrating the same qualities of commitment, determination, collective spirit and competitiveness that the champions will be showing on the football pitches.

Hewlett-Packard
Official Supplier of Computer Equipment of the 1998 World Cup

Hewlett-Packard’s vision takes the World Cup into the next century.

Hewlett-Packard is proud to be an official supplier to the 1998 World Cup. The company shares the vision for the future of the French Organising Committee and is committed to making this 1998 World Cup the most technologically advanced event of its kind. Chosen for of its wide range of high-performance computer hardware, the excellence of its customer service and its global network of offices, Hewlett-Packard will be working closely with the French Organising Committee. The company’s role will be to assist the Committee with technology choices, and to help it to incorporate the technological innovations that will certainly arrive on the market between now and 1998.

Hewlett-Packard will provide the computer hardware for all ten host cities of the 1998 World Cup, enabling journalists, officials and the general public to have immediate access to information pertaining to these events as they unfold. Hewlett-Packard will also provide all the computer equipment needed to manage operations during the World Cup games, such as ticket sales, the organisation of the volunteers, transportation, etc.

With over 98,000 employees worldwide and a turnover of $25 billion in 1994, Hewlett-Packard is the second-largest computer manufacturer in the world and the market leader in UNIX systems and printers. Hewlett-Packard’s open systems technology will make football fans throughout the world feel even closer to the 1998 World Cup.

La Poste
Official Mail Carrier of the World Cup

As official mail carrier for the 1998 Football World Cup, La Poste will be putting its expertise and know-how at the disposal of FRANCE 98. It will propose, alongside its specialised subsidiaries, all the products and services it already provides to companies or which will be customised for the organisation of the World Cup. In this framework, La Poste will be sending out the 2.5 million tickets of the competition in France and to the rest of the world. Moreover, an integrated mail processing service will be set up in the headquarters of FRANCE 98 and in some of the host city offices.

Furthermore, its specially designed philatelic programme for the World Cup will enable La Poste to sell its official stamps and philatelic products (first day covers, inserts, souvenirs), as well as pre-stamped envelopes. This programme will contain 12 issues, the first of which came out on 12 December 1995, the day of the draw for the qualifying round of the 1998 World Cup which marked the official kick-off to this great event.

Through this partnership, La Poste aims not only to develop its mail carrier sales and demonstrate its know-how to its current and potential customers, but also to contribute to the success of this World Cup, the organisation of which represents a real challenge for France.

Manpower
Official Temporary Work Network of the 1998 World Cup

The French Organising Committee chose Manpower to be the Official Temporary Work Network for the 1998 Football World Cup. Each day, Manpower offers its customers in urgent need of staff an immediately operational solution by bringing together in as short a time as possible the supply and demand for skilled manpower.

The quality of its service is based on a double commitment: to gain a profound knowledge of each enterprise in order to be able to anticipate and supply its needs; and to recruit, train and hire the best candidate, whatever qualification may be required. Manpower will be putting this commitment and expertise in the field of human resources at the disposal of the French Organising Committee by playing an important role in the volunteer programme of the 1998 World Cup which will associate about 12,000 men and women in the success of the greatest sporting event in the world.

The main mission of Manpower will be to assist the Organising Committee in selecting the volunteers. This, in fact, is the essential part of the know-how of the 2,300 permanent employees of Manpower, working in 650 agencies throughout France, who hire and send out 61,000 temporary staff each day to enterprises. These temporary workers are similar in many ways to the players who will be taking part in the 1998 World Cup. Like them, they come from varied backgrounds, clubs or companies to form a coherent and tightly knit group for a certain period of time. Like them, they build up their skills through experience in international matches or on company assignments. Like them, they are bearers of an essential value, that of sharing, without which no team has any chance of winning. This explains the enthusiasm with which Manpower intends to contribute, thanks to its network of skills, to the success of what will be, from 10 June to 12 July 1998, one of the biggest temporary organisations in the world.

Sybase, Inc.
Official Software Supplier to the 1998 World Cup

Sybase, Inc., the world’s sixth-largest independent software company, supplies client/server software to some of the world’s largest companies. As an official supplier to the 1998 World Cup, Sybase will be supplying the software needed to store, manage and retrieve all the data critical to running the World Cup.

In 1994, Sybase supplied its software to the 1994 World Cup in the USA. Sybase’s credentials for being a supplier to the world’s largest sporting events are clear: Sybase software has been battle-tested in a wide range of demanding applications. Anywhere large volumes of mission-critical information need to be managed, Sybase software will be found.

Sybase client/server architecture is a flexible software framework that enables companies to respond rapidly to developments.

Sybase, founded in 1984 and with its headquarters in Emeryville, California, achieved revenues of $826 million in 1994, and the company has over 20,000 customer sites worldwide.