ABSTRACT
When France won the World Cup in 1998, the team’s multiethnic composition was feted as a symbol of the nation’s new, postcolonial image. Alas, the feel-good story did not last. Wins became scarce, scandals plagued the team and football was politicized as the public deplored the ‘Playstation junkies’ too individualistic to serve the nation. The infusion of racially charged rhetoric into the discourse of Les Bleus led many to believe that French football is rife with racism and that the national team is not well received by the public. On the contrary, the public is generally supportive of Les Bleus. The negative discourse is an anti-football backlash against the sport’s business climate, one fuelled by traditional disdain for football, and shaded by domestic anxieties. This is the ‘second sports crisis’, an identity crisis less about racial identity and more about the sociocultural norms of being French.
