Pros and the Cup

Les Bleus: The History of French Football

Course 1 · Chapter 3 · Professionalism and the Early Cup

By 1930 French football was popular but officially amateur, and the best players were leaving for richer leagues or being paid in secret. This chapter covers the decision to allow professionalism in 1932, the first national league, the company clubs and foreign players who shaped it, the national team at the World Cups of 1934 and 1938, and the game under the German Occupation. Names, dates and scores are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

The Road to 1932

The open secret

In the 1920s many clubs paid their stars in cash or with jobs, a practice nicknamed "shamateurism" (check). Players moved abroad, to Italy and elsewhere, to be paid openly. The federation, the clubs and the press argued over whether to legalise what was already happening.

The decision

In 1932 the federation voted to allow professional clubs, and a national professional championship began in the 1932 to 1933 season (check). It started with a small number of clubs in two groups, and was won in its first season by Olympique Lillois (check).

The split

The change divided clubs into professionals and amateurs, and some clubs and officials were against it on principle, in the Coubertin tradition (Chapter 2). The professional clubs formed the basis of the later first division (check).

Late, not slow France legalised professionalism in 1932, long after England (1885) and Scotland (1893) (check). But the first championship was a national league from the start, with travel by train across a large country, and the new competition quickly became popular. The delay reflects the strength of the amateur ideal and the dominance of a few sports federations, not a lack of interest in the game.

Clubs, Companies and Foreign Stars

Item (check each)Detail
Company clubsFC Sochaux-Montbéliard was backed by the car-maker Peugeot, which provided jobs, housing and a stadium; it won the championship in 1935 and 1938 (check). Company support became a French model.
Port and southern clubsFC Sète won the league and cup double in 1934, under a British coach, Victor Gibson (check).
Paris clubsRacing Club de Paris and Red Star were prominent, with Red Star winning the cup several times between the wars (check).
Foreign players and coachesThe new professionals included many Central Europeans (Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs) and South Americans, who raised the standard. A foreign-born team of stars sometimes surrounded a few French players (check).
Raoul DiagneBorn in French Guiana to a Senegalese father who sat in the National Assembly, Diagne played for Racing Club de Paris and, in 1931, became the first black player to play for France (check).
The Coupe de FranceThe cup, begun in 1917, was already popular, and its final was held in Paris.

The pattern of clubs built round workers' towns, foreign coaches and players from the colonies runs through the later chapters.

Two World Cups

Tournament (check each)France's result
1934, ItalyFrance played in the first round, a knockout round, and lost 3-2 to Austria after extra time (check). Italy, the host, won the title.
1938, FranceFrance hosted the tournament, with matches in ten cities including Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux. France beat Belgium in the first round and lost to Italy in the quarter-final, and Italy won the title for the second time in a row (check).

France was awarded the 1938 tournament over Argentina, which caused resentment in South America, and several countries stayed away (check). The matches were played in the shadow of the coming war. The final was held at the Stade de Colombes, the Paris stadium used for the 1924 Olympics (check).

The War Years

  • The Occupation. After the defeat of 1940 the country was divided, and the Vichy regime supported sport as part of its programme of moral renewal (check). Professionalism was suspended in the early 1940s and the league organised in regional groups, with a "federal" championship (check).
  • The cup continued. The Coupe de France was played throughout the war, and the 1942 final was won by Red Star, in front of a large crowd (check).
  • Exclusion. The Vichy laws excluded Jewish players, officials and members from sport (check). The effects on individual clubs and careers are an area of continuing research.
  • The Resistance. Some footballers joined the Resistance and some died. One example is Rino Della Negra, a young Red Star player from an Italian immigrant family, who was shot in 1944 as a member of the Manouchian group, and who is remembered by the club (check).
  • After the Liberation. The professional league returned in 1944 to 1945 and the first post-war World Cup was in 1950, which France did not enter (check).
A British comparison England legalised professionalism in 1885 and founded the Football League in 1888; Scotland followed with professionalism in 1893 and its league the same decade (check). France's 1932 date therefore comes nearly half a century later. The company-club model has British parallels in works teams such as Arsenal's origins at the Woolwich arsenal and West Ham's in a Thames shipyard (check), though France kept the model in the professional game for longer. A Scottish coach, Victor Gibson, helping FC Sète to the 1934 double is a typical example of the British influence continuing (check).
Check the details The history of this period is thin in English and varies between sources. Foundation dates, the number of clubs in the first league, scores and the details of the Occupation years should be checked against the federation, club histories and scholarly work. Stories of individual players, including those who died in the war, should be checked against reliable biographies.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Give three reasons why French professionalism came so late, say what evidence would test each, and say which you find most convincing.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Write a short research note on one early club (Sochaux, Sète, Red Star or Racing Club de Paris): what to find out, where to look, and what you would treat with caution.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Compare the legalisation of professionalism in England, Scotland and France in a table, and say what the differences suggest about the attitudes of each country.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • 1932: professionalism legalised; first league 1932 to 1933, won by Olympique Lillois (check)
  • Clubs: Sochaux (Peugeot), Sète, Red Star, Racing Club de Paris
  • World Cups: 1934 (lost to Austria), 1938 at home (lost to Italy) (check)
  • People: Raoul Diagne, Victor Gibson, Rino Della Negra