The Women’s World Cup kicked off on Thursday and will run until August 20, in the torpor of summer and thousands of miles from France. New Zealand, hosts with Australia, kicked off this morning against Norway.
It was only on June 14 that France Télévisions and M6 announced that they had reached an agreement to broadcast the competition in full. It must be said that the calendar of the World Cup, during the summer school holidays, and the time difference with New Zealand (10 hours ahead of France) and Australia (8 hours) did not encourage the television channels to jostle at the gate to be a broadcaster. The matches will be played mostly in the morning, from 2 a.m., or early afternoon French time. A stroke of luck: the first three games of the French team will be broadcast at noon.
Result of this late agreement, an advertising campaign with absent subscribers and only one journalist from each channel will be present on site for interviews, while the matches will be commented on from Paris. Les Bleues, coached by Hervé Renard, will start their competition on Sunday against Jamaica at 12 p.m.
France Télévisions and M6 will broadcast 32 and 24 matches respectively. It is the second which will broadcast the first match of Les Bleues against Jamaica on Sunday July 23 at 12 p.m. France’s two other group matches will be broadcast on France 2, against Brazil on Saturday July 29 at 12 p.m. and against Panama on Wednesday August 2, still at 12 p.m.
In case of qualification in eighth of France, either by arriving first or second of its group, it is M6 which will broadcast the match. France Télévisions will broadcast two quarter-finals, including that of Les Bleues. Minimum objective displayed by coach Hervé Renard, the semi-final with France, which will be broadcast by M6. The channel will also broadcast the small final for third place. France Télévisions inherits the final on Sunday August 20 at 12 p.m.
France is an outsider against other more capped teams, such as the United States, defending champions, or England, crowned European champions last year. If the phase opponents of his group F, Brazil, Jamaica, Panama, seem within reach, it will not be necessary to relax. In a friendly match against Australia on July 14, the players led by their captain Wendie Renard lost 1-0.
The France team, fifth in the FIFA rankings, is a UFO in women’s football, made up of talented and experienced profiles, but who have still not won a single title. The arrival in March of Hervé Renard as coach brought serenity back to a group of which several players were at open war against the methods of the former coach, Corinne Deacon.
