1. Background

• How France succeeded in 1998 World Cup and the spin-offs remained as the legacy so that even SA would be able to identify and learn from.
• Role-played by government and private sector towards preparations.
• Effective legislation and kind of security that could prevent and provide the safety at stadium and widespread of the games.
• The benefits/gains experienced by the community after the event.
• Effective method used to mobilize local community support and buy-in.

3. Composition of the multiparty delegation was as follows:

1. Mr. B M Komphela ANC (Chairperson and leader of delegation)
2. Mr. M M Dikgacwi (ANC)
3. Mr. C T Frolick (ANC)
4. Ms D M Morobi (ANC)
5. Mr. T D Lee (DA)
6. Mr. B W Dhlamini (IFP)
7. Rev M S Khumalo (ACDP)
8. Mr. R B Bhoola (MF)
9. Ms N Mbuqe (Committee Secretary)

D. Structure of the report

The report reflects the daily activities undertaken by the delegation with various presentations made to the delegates by the various stakeholders, site visits, formal interactions and experiences identified by the Committee during the visit. Two day activities were affected by the referendum results that caused the delegation not to have fruitful programme.

E. Wednesday, 1 June 2005

The delegation met with the South African Embassy officials to determine amongst other things political issues so that the delegation should be aware of exactly where the delegation needs to thread during the visit. The delegation sketched the objectives of the visit and sought information on how to sensitize issues politically especially after the referendum. The officials present were: Mr. Enrico Kemp the counselor; Mr. Seraki Matsebe, 3^rd Secretary on bilateral affairs; Mr. Mvuyisi Matiwane 1^st secretary; Ms Pule Bosilong, 1^st secretary on multilateral affairs and Mr. Ronnie Kubjane 1^st secretary on consular affairs. The counselor apologized on behalf of the Ambassador who was engaged in mission affairs.

The delegation promised not to compare SA with France taking into account that SA is a developing country that is not at the same level as France in terms of economy.

Mr. Kemp sketched a brief scenario of the past successful event hoping that details and better interaction will be given during the entire visit. He indicted that France historically is very important in Europe and is the largest 5^th economy member of the European Union. He highlighted the domestic political instability and uncertain situation after the referendum. Mr. Kemp noted that the results of the vote were interpreted differently, some saw it was the humiliation setback to the president Jacques Chirac and some interpreted was because of the excess of 10% of unemployment.

He mentioned that President Chirac always supported NEPAD and conflict resolutions facilitated by SA. France and SA have strong healthy relationship especially on bilateral and multilateral issues. President Chirac opposed Iraq invasion by US as well. French government believes that SA should have a permanent member in the Security Council. They proposed that the delegation should meet the local government structures during the visit.

Mr. Matsebe mentioned that powers were decentralized to regional and local government where local government facilitated the building of stadiums for the event. He emphasized the need of corporate governance between SA and France for projects that would be shared with other delegations. He mentioned that the Embassy stopped other delegations to avoid unnecessary visit duplication and urged the Committee to communicate and share with provincial counterparts the lessons and experiences they would learn in France.

Concerns were raised by Embassy officials such as hosting the 2010 events might not benefit the people of SA and could also leave the country with more deficit quoting the rules and instructions given by FIFA on how to handle finances. The delegation wanted to know about current bilateral agreements between SA and France; agreements between municipalities as well and whether it was possible to visit local municipalities that hosted 1998 event to acquire about planning.

Mr. Kemp noted that there are broad agreements covering arts, culture, education and sport and they really wish to work with SA to develop and promote sport. Mr. Matsebe gave the list of the agreements and when they were signed:

Decentralized cooperation agreements between South African provinces & cities 7 regions in France

signed in 2002

Comments were made in relation to lack of feedback and non-cooperation of the provinces after signing the agreements. Mention was made that these co-operations could assist to build and develop infrastructures. The Embassy expressed its disappointment in the way in which these agreements are handled by the provinces. For an example, JHB is not proposing any project and doesn’t even report back on what has been achieved after given an amount of €40 million (euros). France has resources but they should be used well.

Mpumalanga visited France in 2003 and they were offered by Indra to send students but never honoured that offer. French government is trying to help out but people in South Africa are disappointing. The delegation was encouraged by the Embassy to follow up on those who have not adhered to the agreement. SAFA proposed cooperation with French federations. They noted that the team that won the World Cup was prepared for 5 years in advance of the event. The aim was not to win but to bring the players together and that worked out perfectly and turned out to be winners and world champions. Zinedine Zidane also suggested that if Tsetse Flies (young SA team) were trained by a good soccer academy they could build a good team.

The SA Embassy suggested that the Committee would need to look closely at the agreements mentioned and intervene to assist the Embassy on following up. The leader of the delegation thanked Embassy officials for the informative session and promised to share it back home with the relevant counterparts.

The delegation attended a rugby match between the French Parliamentary team and Tax Department team. The parliamentary team is made up of Parliamentary employees from a prime minister to a cleaner. Games are played as often as possible giving preference to Parliament Programme and Constituency work. The team is funded by contribution from members of the team and partially sponsored by Parliament budget.

All sport codes are played and members pay for attending outside games. Sponsorship is not offering much to avoid the fear of the perception that sponsor would look like members are using it to lobby for their political parties and members are strictly not allowed to receive sponsors. The members of the delegation participated in the Parliament team during the second half.

The delegation was welcomed by Genniges Valery who is the Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister on behalf of the minister together with Rogulski Andrzej and Maudet Thierry, the Deputy Director of Sport in administration. The Minister was not available due to waiting of reshuffle decision on the Cabinet. The delegation and the Ministry officials went through an overview on the planned programme. Mr. Komphela explained broadly the objective of the visit and specifically wanted to know the role of ministry in preparation to a major international event. And what happens to government in relation to spending the funds after the event. Other members sought clarity on interaction and relationship between government and sport federations; and other federations were funded by the Ministry and if yes, how; the role of local government in the preparation of the World Cup and wanted to know if it was necessary to enact legislation for the World Cup.

Mr. Maudet intensively briefed the delegation on key activities. Sport belongs to the competency of the ministry and the ministry works with federations. In 1994 legislation was enacted to address national education. There is legislation on professional sport and education through sport.

He highlighted that there are 60 million people in France of which 36 million play sport at least once a year; 26 million practice sport once a week and 50 million practice with social associations and 7 to 8 million practice on professional level. He told the delegation that public policy considers all those practicing sport. There are 175 000 social local clubs and clubs are very small in numbers at an average of 85 in a club compared to national association e.g. football.

Sport policy is divided into three (i) the state (ii) local entities and (iii) sport movements and national Olympic committee. The role of state is to orientate and give directions. Local authorities implement policies either freely or through legislation. State and local authority are on the same level in terms of authority so the state cannot dictate to local authority on what to do. In order to implement policy they use administrative staff and give them incentives. Human Resource issues have unique system. The Ministry has 1600 members who are allowed to work with national associations. 110 are working with the athletes’ national association, paid and controlled by the ministry but only work with the federations.

The main business of the federations is to educate and train elite sport. Another mission is the development of sport for disadvantaged people. The financial detail of the ministry is that it has national contract with federations and depends on each federation financially from €1 million. People working in the ministry control those monies and sometimes someone from the ministry control them with the purpose of accountability. The role of the people from the ministry is to increase development of sport within national association. Every year there is convention between the ministry and national associations to look at public policy and determine specifically what to work on. Before signing new contract each federation give the ministry their financial accountability. Only 10% of national association is in bad financial difficulties and that is no surprise to the ministry.

1. How is the ministry resolving difficulties mentioned both human and financially?
2. What is the government’s role when federations with huge resources resist or don’t accept money from government? How do you control them after building their human capacity?
3. What type of incentives is given to federations and clubs?
4. What happens if there is no development after money has been given for assistance?
5. How does government make sure that Lotto fund is allocated?
6. In the three legs – state, local government and associations, what is the role of local government?
7. Governance of sport – the impression is that there are no programmes designed by the Minister but rely on associations. How is the compliance of federations monitored in relation to public funds?
8. How does government get involved in preparation of events? What criteria is used in distributing the funds?
9. How big is the Ministry’s budget?
10. How did TV rights affect the country?
11. Did FIFA contributed towards the building of the stadiums?

1. The country doesn’t have local authorities that function like the ones in South Africa and the difference is that there are political and administrative levels and municipality competencies.
2. Small federations like table tennis and volleyball could not organize well their championships and the state provides money to balance that. That is one of the financial difficulties mentioned.
3. The state is involved three years in advance in organizing events especially the international ones.
4. The second main reason of deficit is the TV broadcasting rights especially because those unpopular sport codes and national leagues not associations manage them.
5. The ministry has a good relationship with federations and every federation is bound by legislation so even the wealthy clubs abide by the rules.
6. The Minister communicates with the president of the federation not the league and this is an obligation from the legislation and this situation is new in France. One of the minister’s businesses is to look at the contracting of professional leagues which is difficult with football. Professional leagues negotiate their own TV broadcasting rights and its difficult to change line for national associations due to its planned budget. TV rights for football new contract are €600m for a period of four years.
7. The question should be is the money going to better facilities or development of sport or social programmes or to pay them better and is about 5% taxation going to development of all sport. Football is allocated 30m Euro but the pressure is to contract with national associations.
8. The Ministry also has budget generated from Lotto besides the departments’. In 1979 it was decided that all gambling facilities including Lotto should be charged an amount of 5% taxation that will go to sport.
9. National associations are operating in different levels where they organize their own tournaments and get money from sold tickets.
10. Incentives depend on priorities especially when there is no development. State don’t have obligation on national associations to develop and control them. New legislation was proposed to target priorities because state money needs to be controlled but its on transitional period. Before this, it used not been an obligation but the legislation could help.
11. New financial framework is to be implemented to determine the number of licensed people and to target priorities and efficiency.
12. The Ministry thought that in 2002 youth should belong to Education but changed in 2004 after noticing that 55% of all clubs consist of youth so the Ministry that changed the department to Ministry of Youth, sport and voluntary clubs. The Budget is €497m Euros including the Lotto funds and the allocation is as follows:
1. €290 m is for promotion of sport of 15 million for mass participation
2. €126m is for elite sport with 6 000 people
3. €54 m – for education and training of civil servants e.g. managers
4. €27m – for prevention and protection of athletes i.e. antidoping

This budget does not involve the state budget. School sport is linked to education and sport ministry is the agent where kids are developed and taken over by sport ministry when ready for professional level. Out of school kids belong to sport ministry but education is responsible for physical activities at school level. Local municipality organizes mass participation and every facility and equipment belongs to municipality. The Sport Ministry has 7000 employees in the whole of Paris in decentralized offices and head office. Sport Ministry and sport movements manage FNDS. The fund is distributed through national commission, which is the Minister. Every year the Minister makes a note to partners to determine objective before the general priorities are addressed. The role of state is to look at how much is allocated at local and regional and the state should be bias to balance between national and regional. Only small amount goes to equipment since the municipalities cater them for.

France has an experience in organizing big events; the state was involved during the bidding that created private and public entities in terms of funding. This was the situation also in 1998 on what FIFA designed that the government was not satisfied of the terms and regulations. FIFA asked for certain standards and equipment but the state had no problem as they were looking at investing and also to host more events with perfect infrastructures. The leader of the delegation thanked the officials for their informative session and proceeded to the next meeting.

The delegation proceeded to meet with Sport Sans Frontiers, which means Sport without boundaries and was warmly welcomed by the director, Mr. Arnaud Mourot and his colleague Mr. Francoise Boivin. This is an NGO initiated by someone who was a champion for wrestling. The aim is to prove that sport could unite people with different language and culture. Sport can also be used as a tool to educate and develop people in difficult situations. This organization was established on September 1999 as apolitical and non denominational association of international solidarity and approved by the Minister of Youth, Sport and Community Life.

The organization has now five (5) people employed at the head office and seventeen (17) in programmes. Twelve (12) voluntary workers are in France and 10 on programmes elsewhere. These progammes have reached 20 000 young people to have access to sport.

The vision of the organization is said to be a different one looking at sport as one of the rare universal languages of our time, an opportunity for cohesion and togetherness and a tool for stability and reassurance. It represents a new response to the social and educational development of the individual and the community and looks at access to sport as a fundamental right for all. Every organization implements sports-based educational programmes which allow thousands of children living in difficult conditions in France and abroad to rebuild their lives and fulfill their potential.

The programmes included Madagascar and Romania but those in progress are Afghanistan; South Asia; Bolivia; France; Kosovo; Morocco and Senegal. Out of the organization’s budget, 80% is allocated to programmes; 12% for running costs and 8% is a collection and communication cost. In Afghanistan the programme is aimed at using sport to reconstruct and promote sport activities for women by teaching them karate in order to enable them to protect themselves. These women are also willing to train others. These trainings include children who have been affected by wars and street kids in places like Kabul to rehabilitate their behaviours. In Senegal children are encouraged to have education and to play sport. In this country sport is a tool that is complementary to learning. There are two sessions for two hours per week. In Morocco the key factor is to use it as a teaching tool to improve self-esteem and to help them to better plan their future. It also allows for the development of social cohesion and cooperation by teaching vital social values, such as respect for rules, partners, opponents, supervising staff; authority figures and to also improve their attitudes.

In South Asia it assists those affected by Tsunami with therapy. Those in Bolivia are supported psychologically, socially and educate street children and young girls with aquatic programmes who suffered sexual abuse to help them to develop healthy perceptions of their bodies through sport. In some countries like France and Kosovo the organization helps in combating underachievement in schools and to develop citizenship and participation. The problem experienced in France is integration and some are excluded from schools and the programme links with Morocco on intercultural exchanges between young French and Moroccan people.

1. Where is the budget coming from?
2. Are there any exchanges with SA rural children?
3. How are countries prioritized?
4. How are street children kept from running back to the street? Are they taken directly from streets or from the shelters?
5. How many exchange students in the country presently and what kind of education given to them?
6. Are these children given equipment to play with since they are destitute children? What is the organization’s long-term objective on the programmes?
7. What type of facilities is the organization leaving with them or equipment?

The organization gets funding from the Ministry of Education, Sport, Internal Affair; French Embassy and also have partnership with private companies. They are looking at partnering with professional and amateur clubs. SSF has worked with SCORE an NGO in South Africa but don’t have relations with rural school kids for the moment. In prioritizing the countries, the organization first meets with the association to determine whether there are similarities with their programmes and assess the context and problems in the area for assistance. All the programmes are started from scratch and set up criteria to afford them the ability to sustain their programmes and when the criterion is met SSF leaves the country.

This organization is not working directly with the street children but engage them via the associations. Kids with disabilities are not yet catered for in the programmes. Those severely affected by wars are given opportunity to express their anger so that they can go through healing process and connect with other people. The main aim of the organization is to give the kids access to sport and also to give them material and build facilities.

The delegation commended the people involved in the programmes for the good work especially looking after children who are the future and leaders of tomorrow. They were also thanked for teaching the children values from their own countries.

Welcomed by the Vice President in the National Assembly, Mr. Eric Raoult and Mr. Gerges Colombier. They showed excitement and were enthused by the visit of the SA National Assembly Sport Committee.

In their briefing they highlighted the fact that France had eight years for preparations for the World Cup. They have four good localizations and had four years to decide as to where to build stadiums. Some identified a stadium next to the airport but after serious discussions the question of transport and security was taken into consideration. So there were different decisions taken for different reasons.

One of the choices was Sandoni, the city where the King resides. The departments and all involved had to work together on the choice of the site. Mr. Komphela informed them that most stadiums are in place but it is just a need renovation. Mr. Raoult emphasized that the stadiums were built in very poor suburbs and they had to find interest from the poor people and youth to be involved in building those stadiums.

Two years was dedicated to find spirit of the Cup from the people. The youth were invited to the renovations and construction of the stadiums that made them felt important and owned the facilities so they could not bother of being in the field during the match. Also the community around the facilities felt the spirit of ownership.

The schools were also involved as with national operations of exhibitions on the question of the World Cup like having stamps exhibiting football and other things. All schools made preparations with drawings on challenges about the event. The delegation was notified that during preparations for the event was not for money but for the people and schools to have an idea about the event. During interaction the delegation noticed that the tickets given to France were only for the organizing committee and big screens were available for young kids and poor communities who could not afford tickets. There was strong mobilization from schools that took place six months before the event to avoid the focus on ticket prices and that worked very well.

Young people could identify themselves with the players that were very encouraging after the event. Social and ethnic values were very encouraged and people were more united after the games. The most interesting and encouraging thing was to see the flag lifted even by those coming from the poor areas and the tone was high when France won the Cup.

The delegation was also interested on the type of legislation passed that allowed the running of finances and the kind of spin offs that made them happy after the event. They noted that the money was not spent without controls but they had many ministers involved in the preparations. He further explained that during Stade de France construction all cities and departments were involved so that all monies could be distributed to all. The building amounted to €400 million.

There was a problem experienced on security because of terrorism and Department of Justice had to devise solutions. It was also important that after years that would live tourism legacy. Spin offs continues and small village still have money from the event. Benefits would be for all and if there is deficit then it is left for the state. That explanation was questioned on why people share benefits and the state is left with deficit. The answer was that people pay taxes. Identifying people to design it rather than approaching us cautioned the delegation locally.

The question of the role of Members of Parliament was answered clearly that there they don’t have specific role but were to be opened to ideas of allocation of benefits. Members of Parliament participated in their constituencies by networking the event. After the delegation satisfied themselves with answers they proceeded to meet with French Football Federation.

Mr. Jacques Lambert, the director-general welcomed the delegation on behalf of the president, Mr. Escalettes who came later. Mr. Lambert told the delegation that he just joined the federation not long ago and was eager to give advice on the preparations of the event. The president extended a warm welcome to the delegation. He assured the group about their willingness to assist in giving best advises. He gave a brief presentation on how their structures are formulated.

France has more than two million registered players and increase very slow with more than 20 000 clubs and more or less 42 professional clubs and the rest are amateur clubs. The country is divided into 22 regional leagues and couple more in overseas which comes to 30 leagues. The country comprises the state, region and departments with 102 districts and 20 000 amateur clubs. Each league and district has professional committee with 153 committee executives organizing amateur football and all are elected members.

Executive committee has 2 members elected from amateur and from making it professional and its difficult to become Consul Federation. There are competitions from district level and a player should go from 5 levels to reach the district and 3 to 6 levels to reach the professionals and the last level need three levels. Before reaching the top the player has to go 15 levels. This structure is more the same with French administration. That makes the country proud when the players are sold to other countries.

Executive committee has general assembly twice in a year with all representatives of football. The power of the General Assembly is limited in electing members. There are four people, 2 belong to amateurs and two to professionals. They are independent and must not belong to any of the committee. The question from the delegation was the relations with the developing countries like SA in terms of player exchange and their relationship with the government. The president noted that the federation organizes sport and get little from the Ministry. There are objectives that are discussed with the government and they account to the Minister about the budget. The federation is independent, government act according to the law and ethics of the country and they can organize as they please without political interference from government. The federation does not involve itself in politics.

The new executive has decided to pick up international departments and explore some ideas and technicalities. They are ready to share the experience with other countries that are interested. Mr. Lambert further briefed the delegation that there have been intensive training course developed that has been recognized as one of the best. French programme is not automatically transferable to other countries but have to think of how to reinforce training in other countries that are interested.

1. Is the management of football association able to make football successful or is there any problem experienced with coaches. What problems are there when calling national players? Is national team popularized as being the national asset?
2. What are key challenges as far as infrastructures; level of interaction and legislation expected from FIFA? In the operations of the World Cup what were possible pitfalls/dangers to deal with the challenges/expectations? What were the real benefits?
3. Were there specific programmes to develop the current stars?

 

Response

The president noted that there are problems in relation to players who are playing abroad. The country then identified with the national team that the national team is very important but it is not a problem for France players to come back for national games. Also playing abroad has made some of the players became stars because of the experience they acquire from outside the country. Jacques elaborated with more details on the preparations for 1998 event on technical, financial and market related issues. The three key challenges were:

1. Quality of stadiums
2. Professional organization of the national team
3. To make the event national interest

The global image of Olympics is much stronger and easy to identify with French. A challenge is to organize world event rather than national. The major difficulty is to organize the event in many cities than Olympics that takes place in one city. There are lots of changes imposed by FIFA after 1998 on federations but it will be differ with SA because FIFA has even imposed tougher conditions. Jacques advised the delegation that SA government and federations should remain firm with FIFA because the requirements from FIFA are increasing and SA must look at its own interest e.g. finances.

On security, France had difficulty in controlling the hooligans from the neighbouring countries. Specific provisions were made but did not prevent everyone who came in, but there were minimal violent incidents. The prices of the tickets would depend on the number sold to SA people. To meet the financial challenges the tickets cannot be as cheap as one wishes. During 1998 event all 10 organizing locations were involved in popularizing the event. The pitfall is financial risk and government should be very careful because most of benefits go to FIFA. The only benefit France gained was the image of the country.

There was no need for legislation. The president told the delegation that as far as media requirements are concerned there were 12 000 credentials that needed a big media centre in each venue. Regarding communication, it should be a joint venture with the federation, government and relevant role players. The sites need to be visited 18 months before to show the media the venues and how security operates and work together to showcase the good image of the country. The leader of the delegation thanked both presenters for their wisdom shared with the group.

Michel Poussau welcomed the delegation. The presentation was about the structure and the event prior 1998. The stadium has three levels and the lowest is movable to accommodate the events that take places at that moment. It’s a multipurpose stadium with 18 entrances, 3 levels of stand; 67 bars and foodstalls. The movable seats from the lowest level are 25 000. 100 000 seats are reserved for concerts. France was chosen in 1992 to host 1998 16^th Soccer World Cup. On 10 December 1993 was the opening of the competition within the country and the consortium was chosen on 5 October 1994. The construction began on 30 April 1995 and finished in December 1997. The grand opening took place on January 28, 1998 between France and Spain.

The construction itself took 31 months with 5 000 employees. The overall investment was €407 million but 53% came from private sector and 47% was public subsidy. The Missions of the Consortium are

Stade de France gave appreciation to three conventions i.e. both football and rugby federations and the French government that made the consortium to be guaranteed to host a minimum of 9 matches a year for 15 years. The federations own TV royalties and the Consortium Stade de France owns marketing royalties. The federations collect the ticketing revenues while the Consortium gets either a fixed income (rent) or a variable income depending on ticketing revenues.

Stade de France accommodates 2 500 journalists; security centre with 120 video cameras that can zoom in during suspicious acts. Those prosecuted are put in the 40 jail cells within the stadium. One exit evacuates 1000 people but for the whole stadium it takes 8 minutes to evacuate in 80 exits, gates open automatically by the security in cases of emergency. Athletics track are covered when not in use.

Mr. Lapasset, the president of the association and the director-general, Mr. Druais warmly welcomed the delegation. An interpreter was hired by the Embassy to assist with translation during the presentations and interaction. The president presented on rugby federation structures. He noted that there are training networks to bring players to national levels and the relation between federation and schools involve rugby fields. He said that the federation of rugby started on 16 July 1984. French rugby federation gets the principle from the Ministry. The goal is to organize, manage and develop rugby in the country. It is the centre of the national body with 26 regional and 100 district levels.

There is a steering committee with 37 elected by 1780 members in France. The steering committee appoints federal bureau of 17 members for daily operations. 65 administrative people manage the federation and the centre has 20 members. The organization of competitions is delegated to national rugby league that organizes first and second leagues. Various bodies represented are IRB, Six Nations Commission and European Rugby Club. The Budget is €70 million with 65% coming from matches and marketing of matches.

The training of players is done through an agreement with the Minister. Training comprises high-level training and development from the agreement. There are 54 technical executive training players that implement the federal policy on training. The structure with final objective is national team with 7 players including the female team. The goal is to create tournaments with young people that are going to be implemented this year. The female team has 4 000 registered players with two promising players from school. There are French teams with young players less than 19 and 21 years.

There are 300 players, 100 are less than 16 years; 100 under 17 and 100 under 18. Only 40 best is selected and the best 26 will be part of the team. All over France there are detection centers with 15 and 16 years old who will become 10 of the promising poles. Training is going concurrently. There is also specialized intensive training taking place from time to time to meet the needs. The goal is to prepare players to meet high level and prepare for their studies as not all of them are going to be rugby players so they need to have jobs i.e. need education. There is a yearly meeting to assess or evaluate what has been done to prepare for future planning for the four-year agreement with the Minister.

1. Are the detection centers where the players are identified?
2. What is the role of teachers and how are schools organized for rugby?
3. What is the relationship with the government mentioned, in line with the agreement by the Minister? The government sets out the objective and federations execute in line with the government.
4. What is required in the contract with the Minister? Is that contract quiet about rural identification of talent?
5. In yearly assessments, if there are no results what happens?

Response/ clarity

1. The technical people liaise with the trainers from regional technical teams headed by trainers then the executive coordinates and gathers information.
2. In the 10 poles the national education employs 10 physical education teachers. French rugby has two technical advisers per pole and oversees the duties done by the teachers. Students study up to 3 pm and then practice rugby. Rugby proposes the plan of action and government validates it. The federation’s objective is to detect and train players for the best national team and also not to have Under 19 to be champions but want to train them to be part of the national team to show the best training and detection body.
3. The structure in Europe is usually first and second. French Rugby Federation is an association with statutes and to implement the policy has to meet the principles in the statutes. Federal executive only train national team and if a technical adviser wants to be part of a club should resign from Federal executive. Ministry attached technical advisor who implement and coordinate all rugby bodies. The Minister with 54 territorial technical advisors who specialize in rugby pays the technical adviser.
4. It is always the aim to get best results but not compelled to be champions. If there is technical problem then it is fixed but if personal the person is removed. Not all 54 technical training is working for high level training only but have to work concurrently with training and development advisors.

The director added that in addition to development of rugby there is a role to play in education, health, prevention of violence and development of female rugby and also employment e.g. federations sign agreement with the Minister of Education regarding relationship with schools to enable trainers from club to meet students from schools to play rugby. At schools everything is done through inspectors to give legitimacy to play and students are invited to spend a day playing rugby in the centre.

Physical education teachers are in charge and assist learners to play rugby at the level of territorial committees and they get equipment. There is relationship between schools and clubs called One Club – One School. Club establishes special links with certain schools and even sponsors them. Prevention of violence is supported by the federation in association to prevent violence by establishing links with young people termed "drop the concrete". Through training these young people learn basic living rules known as Rugby City and the federation support the club in disadvantaged areas by giving subsidies. Professional integration, in addition to 54 executives is 16 more new national technical executives. French government has implemented an action and federation recruited youth and gave them 60 jobs to become technical rugby trainers.

The federations signed agreement with National Employment Agency to enable rugby players to find jobs later. Another agreement with temporary employment agency will help them to determine their skills are and train them to find jobs. The development of female rugby players intends to make access to young girls. The federation supports the female team financially and detects players assisting them to practice closer to their houses. This initiative is assessed on daily basis and reconducted every year.

1. What was the relationship between government and the federation before 1984?
2. Any regulations that guides the relationship?
3. Is the subsidy to disadvantaged areas for improving development? In One Club-One School what kind of assistance is given to school apart from training?
4. Do you have rugby relation with SA to assist them with technical knowledge they don’t have?
5. How many schools are going to be adopted from SA?

1. It has been a close relationship between state and federations. Federations have been authorized to keep the high level federations in charge of organizing. Before 1984 there was another one and if there is a problem then the federation runs to law or act.
2. There is a very broad law in organization covering the practice of sport and kind of degrees one needs for prevention against doping.
3. Federations allocate subsidies to clubs who implement action to disadvantaged areas. One club – one school initiative is two fold in that educators go to school for students to discover rugby and to discover sponsorship to finance school activities. Experience has taught that students learn to practice social rules and how to behave.
4. This federation has a privileged relationship with SA and even sits together in International Rugby Board.
5. Adopting a school in SA can be done. Budget Vote for development is €6m. The bilateral exchange needs to be done at Ministerial levels and when the agreements are signed their federations get together. Following the World Cup in 1999 the federation wanted to give a house to the federation and young people to be trained here, in France as coaches and trainers. This centre was opened in September 2002 with three main goals to win, host and train. Before building the high level centre the federation visited New Zealand, which is currently the best but couldn’t visit Stellenbosch to compare. The aim was to open training centre like NZ open to all rugby clubs. There are links with SA even on political level.

The delegation was very impressed with the rugby federation and thanked them on their presentation and advices they received.

The delegation flew very early in the morning to Toulouse which is the southern part of France to meet with people who were involved with preparations and the team that won the World Cup also came from Toulouse. The rugby club was found in 1890 and got its name Stade Toulouse in 1907. The club is a multipurpose sport club including tennis, swimming, water polo, and volleyball for women; athletics track; baseball and soon golf will be a new code. 2 500 people participate in these various codes with 16 national championships, French Cup etc and 120 players for national team. The monument was built in the club with all the titles but its small to cover all the heros’information because it is also a statue that has names for 78 members who died during World War II.

Rugby administration has different units; one is SABS, a company dedicated to professional sport activities and more a society with a board. There is a board dedicated to advertising and company structures are not similar to SA. There is also society for non-professional rugby with training centre. The society owns all facilities with members of the club. The sporting facility has 19 353 numbered seats and has been recently revamped. Soccer and rugby can both use it. There is one main pitch and three training fields; two are natural turf while one has been developed to synthetic.

The club does not go out to buy players outside of the area as they are seen as foreigners. Every year Under 14s are selected to be trained not to become champions but to be professionals. The training programme is managed horizontally between management of the academy and the training centre management to determine progress that is shared by all teams in the club.

1. How is the club sustained?
2. How big is the club’s budget to be able to feed the high performance level?
3. To what extent is the club working with schools?

Responses

1. Each club chooses its way of managing finances. Big proportion of 50% of the budget is sponsored and the rest are image rights; tickets; marketing, branding etc. The benefits are transferred to the academy training centre so that is how it sustains itself. Local authority subsidizes a small part according to what they use the facility for.
2. The club has €15m, the academy has €800 000m and the training centre has €400 000m.
3. The professionals are recruited later and have agreements with schools so that they have special agreements that are in line with the studies. Specific academic training is developed in directly in the training centre assisting all players. There is specific vocational school for players who at the end of their playing career are enabled to look for other options.

The delegation was taken to view the stadium named after one of the players called Ernest Xallon and is now known as Ernest Xallon Stadium. Soccer can also be played in this. The one owned by the local authority accommodates soccer as well with a capacity of 35 000. In their training center there is a scrum-training machine that is the only one available in the world that shows that Toulouse club is very important. The synthetic grass in the field cost €1,7million to put it and that does not need maintenance and also saves water. The synthetic grass is five years guaranteed and the pitch is not completely flat so that it cannot hold water.

The manager, Valerie Viscru-Serraz welcomed and briefed the delegation on the objective of the center. She noted that they are training from ages 17 to 23 years old and it’s not easy. The professional team was selected from the youngest promising team with the aim to make them best players in the first team. When professional player is running towards end of his play someone is being groomed to replace him. Mass examination of skills is done before they can join the professional team.

Two main things are (i) security in charge of non-professional players called rugby school and (ii) professional team in between the two, the training centre is recruiting the need for the professional. The centre is a private facility and the manager is employed by Education Department. Only the counselor is employed by the state. The counselor, Mr. Lemonsu Gerard is in charge of 48 primary schools from age 6 to 11 and eight junior high school from ages 11 to 15 years plus 3 high schools of 15 to 18 years learners. The counselor used to be a rugby coach, teach sport at past tertiary and also training teachers for multi sport codes.

There are 17 schools in the region but the counselor’s work is not well exposed/marketed to the public. Mr. Gerard trains 480 physical education teachers with 6 000 kids to define their working programmes in physical education and priorities. One of the duties is to teach kids to swim and a big effort is made on track sport and long distance running. This year, 4000 kids between 5 and 12 years were trained on long distance running. 70 rugby teams organized games and providing teachers in primary schools with documents on training.

1. What are requirements for the job as the counselor?
2. What resources are provided?
3. Are specialized teachers given incentive for training?
4. What is the relationship between the school kids and the academy?
5. How are roles defined?
6. How are kids reached who are not of the academy because they stay in the rural areas?

1. The counselor has teacher’s course as the requirement and literature and must be a specialist in writing documents on training.
2. No resources are provided.
3. Primary school teachers have sport as part of the curriculum. Schools inspectors assist each district. Teachers are doing it voluntarily and trade unions don’t have a problem with that. Teachers and kids are put in practice first then theoretical on how to develop and how to occupy rugby space or all other fundamentals. From there a selection is done with the kids.
4. The first thing is to make rugby look less dramatic since it is known as a violent sport. Parents are involved so that kids could be interested. The agreement has been designed between training center and education. The training center also train coaches so that they can approach primary schools and liaise with the teachers. Two tournaments are organized every year. A teacher has an obligation to provide physical education to every learner and sport field is the best place to meet. Physical education has two types of skills to be acquired by learners i.e (i) technical and (ii) social skills and the best rule is to respect one another.
5. There are national guidelines from the Minister of Education and within the guidelines there are 7 different outdoor activities, e.g. swimming; team sport; gymnastics; tennis up to 12 years as mixed teams for girls and boys. Girls try to avoid physical contact.
6. It’s a well-known facility and there are talent scouts. The Minister of Education is in control, accountable for the academy and it’s well coordinated and informed by legislation. Teachers also identify talented kids by also networking. The manager is managing the center with teachers, doctors, physiotherapies, coaches etc. Learners are refereeing all rugby games and tournaments are divided where each team sends a referee. Those who could not make it to professionals are not left out but become either coach or referee or manager. All coaches for all teams were players earlier. Rugby helps to integrate and one to find a place in the society.

The delegation wanted clarity on the complex system used by the coach on how does he deal with sport coordination and education, which is a major problem. The Counselor responded by pointing out that the network itself is a symbol of the problem. This problem emanates from the act and the use of the networking. French parents are very involved and aware of reading and writing and are also involved in coaching and teaching sport which is one of the major elements to master reading skills. Sport is mastering the body that leads to mastering the brain.

Teachers who have not been teaching rugby before get experience from the document compiled by the counselor. Another question was about the coordination of mass participation. The response was that the school week is organized for 9 days and from that teachers put 45 minutes aside for physical education. The duration for a year for schools in France is 9 months long and then for the second three months the long distance running takes place. All schools are requested to submit their school programmes with the assistance of inspectors. Inspectors are of a great assistance as they also assist in training of teachers during their out of school time. The greatest ambition is modesty.

The regional director and regional technical director presented their roles and responsibilities in relation to organizing and running of sport.

• 7 departmental directors are in charge of physical sport and education.
• Sport in France has a mission to get federations to develop sport with the assistance of local authorities.
• The last 25 years directors tried to coordinate sport regardless of political situation organized by the President of Sport Council on national level and regional sport councils. There are 1 600 regional sport councils in this specific region and there are 22 regions in France. This region is the biggest and is mix of rural and metropolitan. The regional councilors are state civil servants.

1. How many sport personnel employed in the region?
2. How are the players linked from school to professional, as a state if one wants a player is he able to pump the name and get all the information about him on the database?

There are 320 staff members out of 2,6 million people in the region. The salary scales are the same as teachers at secondary school level. There are three bosses, which are the national director, director for technical skills in the policy of specific sport and the president of the league. Leagues can work as management in different administrations. Training centers are controlled and managed by state although they are private. Release of players to play for national team, a player is entitled to refuse when called by national team as long as it is not within the agreement or within the calendar of IRB.

The director told the delegation that rugby is feasible to track down players and it’s their job. The branch federation has all the lists of clubs and has licence numbers to keep the track record. There is national and regional track record lists. At school levels lot of management participate dividedly as follows: (i) the training of coaches, referees and management of clubs; (ii) mass participation and organization of calendar for events and management of facilities and (iii) elite recruits young athletes from school sport at school organized by specific federation called United Sport at Schools.

The best athletes can be detected. Intensive training is organized for 10 days. The managing team makes it possible that the best team participate in national championships. 6 000 licenses and 100 participate on national championships. Financial matters are paid by the state and resources are provided by regional branch of the federation.

1. Who decides on priority sport and resources?
2. How is port prioritized in the whole budget?
3. Athletics – in terms of assistance in the region is your help not bias? How do you give all equally?

Response:

1. The decision is from the Federation dynamics, club dynamics and culture. The resources from the state are not distributed according to popularity. In the region soccer has 100 000 licenses and rugby has 25 000; tennis; gymnastics etc, the diversity is not based on overwhelming of rugby. The state is paying for 65 regional councilors.
2. The number is less than 1% of the global budget where sport gets 0,15%.
3. Athletics are the most difficult to develop. The regions are too big and network is not equally developed but it’s not a matter of not wanting. The state is trying to balance the development of all regions.

He took the delegation through and noted that the major stadium is called Stade Toulouse owned by local authority in an island in the middle of the river. The major interest is that it is isolated for security reasons. The problem is that it cannot be easily accessed. Important games during the World Cup were organized and played there.

1. All actors participating were gathered i.e. state representatives; sport federations and local participants that are authorities, district and regions.
2. First aid is done by police services and complimentary services are for marketing.
3. Only bus shuttles go there because it was easy to manage buses better for traffic and security reasons.

1. The first meetings are gathered very much in advance in 18 months to determine where the system is failing and be tested on small games like quarter finals.
2. The key point is to manage gathering of all participants to work together. The participation and integration of public transport is vital because the event depends on it.
3. Communication programme needs to train personnel well in advance and the drivers became the organizers of the event through certain training.
4. Seven years later they are still talking about the event and imagined their jobs as very important. The drivers now are doing their jobs with pride. They had dedicated lane on the road and itinerary was done well in advance and had to conform to it.

The delegation was very impressed with the information but had few concerns especially on the special lane used by the drivers as how was it kept free. They were told that roadblocks limited traffic with national police on duty, municipal and state officials in charge. The cars had special stickers for identification.

Another question was whether the stadium was built specifically for the event and how were the organizers affected by evacuation in the cases of emergency since the facility was built on the island. The stadium was not built special for the event but was upgraded. It was guttered down and rebuilt due to safety regulations that were to be followed. In the case of evacuation, there were many bridges built that made easy access and there was also a fast lane open. Four games were played in the stadium.

J. Friday, 10 June 2005

The meeting was held in the Senate House. Mr. Ferrand, the president of Friendship Group, welcomed the delegation. He told the delegation that 2 million people are not living inside the borders of France but are represented by 12 Senators. He is one of the representatives. He briefly noted that their constituencies elect the members. 155 are directly elected and 6 000 live in SA and they vote from their Embassies in SA for senators. Those living outside France have 4 basic commissions and meet twice in Paris.

The four commissions work on the main concerns, i.e.

1. Health, social development; protection and national pension called Social Affairs.
2. Teaching or education networking has two schools in SA one in Johannesburg with 6oo kids and one in Cape Town.
3. Commission of Law that networks wit all consulates e.g. when they want to get married or they need passports or visas.
4. Economic Fiscal Finance is how they keeping in France i.e. organization of French people living abroad.

Main target concerns

1. To take care of French people’s interests.
2. The presence and relationship with the citizens
3. Have civil servants working with co-operations, some bankers who stay for three years and more in companies. Amongst the 2 million, 1 million lives in Europe and other French speaking countries in Africa.
4. More than 80% French voted yes during the referendum.

Mr. Komphela wanted to know how do they look at education in terms of twining them with co-operations in France to see development for other countries. Mr. Ferrand told the group that their target is to develop and enhance relationship with the countries they are dealing with. SA is of great interest to them and France discovered the importance of developing links with and need to select projects to do with SA.

The group informed the president that the main aim to visit France was to interact with organizers of WC 1998.

The Committee appreciates the hospitality and support given by the South African Embassy in France especially Mr. Matsebe, the 3^rd Secretary on bilateral affairs in Paris. The delegation learnt many challenging lessons that it would like to introduce in the sport fraternity as a whole in South Africa.

1. Constant change of regulations by FIFA for the hosting country is a concern.
2. The issue of tight security and working relationship with other government departments is a dire need.
3. Preparations for the World Cup should be communicated through all the people of the country including disadvantaged communities for buy-in and ownership of the event. The event would focus mainly on bringing the country together.
4. The creativity of the youth and their involvement during construction of facilities should be one of the main focuses.
5. The country should look at building and training of a good team that would mean that a national academy would play a vital role.
6. Sport in France has a mission to get federations to develop sport with the assistance of local authorities.
7. Release of players to play for national team, a player is entitled to refuse when called by national team as long as it is not within the agreement or within the calendar of IRB.
8. Gambling and Lotto is contributing 5% taxation to sport.
9. Department of Education develops kids at school until they are ready for professional level and have already left high school.
10. Coverage of the game by big screens.