frbleus1-4, Exercise 1: Testing "champagne football"

Model answer (check the details):

What it claims: that Reims (and the French national team under Albert Batteux) played an attractive, quick, short-passing style, light and sparkling like the region's wine.

Evidence that would support it: film footage of the matches, reports in L'Équipe and the foreign press, goals-scored figures (for example Reims's scoring record in the league and the European Cup), and descriptions by opposing coaches and players.

Evidence that would undermine it: low scoring seasons, reports describing the team as defensive or physical, or evidence that the phrase was applied to the team much later.

Who made it popular: French journalists of the 1950s, helped by the club's location and the champagne firms that supported it (check), and later writers looking back at a golden age.

Conclusion: the label is plausible for the attacking side of the team, especially in the 1956 final and the 1958 World Cup, but it is a slogan and should not be treated as an exact description of the whole period.

Care: the phrase was also used for other teams and periods, so check which one a writer means.