Poor crowds for Olympics in France don’t come as a surprise

by Jean-Pierre Thiesset (9/8/24)

Above: A full Stade Velodrome in Marseille – not something that the venue has been close to being during the women’s football event at the Olympic Games. Photo: Inside The Games.

A total of just over 26,000 fans watched the Olympic Games women’s football semi-finals in stadiums that together had a combined capacity of almost 120,000 fans. More widely across the women’s tournament, it has been no better.

Despite my admiration for women’s football, I must come to terms with the fact that France is still not a Women’s football country. For most football fans in France, football means men’s football.

Just looking at the stadium capacity in D1 Arkema for two of the best teams in the world, shows a part of the problem: Olympique Lyonnais, OL Training Center, 1,524 seats; Paris Saint-Germain, Campus PSG, 700 seats.

But do we need more capacity when the attendance is just over 6,000 per round during the 2023-2024 regular season? Only two games during the season saw crowds of over 4,000 spectators – Olympique Lyonnais v Paris St. Germain attracted 21,764 in a stadium that can contain 59,186, with the return game in Paris pulling 15,899 in a stadium that can contain 48,583; if we remove these two games, the average total attendance for a round during the season is just below 5,000.

Attendances for the French national team over the past two years remain frustratingly low. Crowds of 26,453 against Austria last December and 30,267 against Germany in February 2024 were against the norm. Their recent European Championship qualifier against England – the defending champions and one of the continents’ big guns was watched by only 10,194 in St. Etienne.

Whilst the French national side boast one of the most exciting collection of players in the world, and the duo of Olympique Lyonnais and Paris St. Germain contain some of top-class talent, there is still much to do in France to attract the crowds.

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