frbleus1-10, Exercise 1: Applying the six questions

Model answer (check the details), using "Football in France was always a minor sport":

1. Who says it? Often fans of other sports, commentators and historians of sport; sometimes football supporters who want to stress how far the game has come.
2. What exactly is claimed? That football was never a major sport. "Always" and "minor" are both loose: minor compared with what, and by what measure (players, spectators, newspaper space)?
3. What would count as evidence? Participation figures, attendance at matches, newspaper coverage, the number of licensed clubs and television audiences, from the federation and archives.
4. Compared with what? Rugby, cycling and athletics in France, and football in England and other countries.
5. Which period? The 1890s, the 1920s (before professionalism), the 1950s and today, since the picture changes sharply.
6. What would change my mind? Figures showing football as the leading sport by participation or attendance in the early decades.

Verdict: not "always". In the early decades football competed with rugby, cycling and athletics and was held back by the amateur ideal (Chapters 2 and 3), but it grew steadily and is today the leading team sport (check). A careful sentence gives the period.

Care: the figures vary with how participation is counted, so check the source of any statistic.