 |
|
|
|
| August 1997 - N°27 |
|
FRANCE 98 IN BRIEF |
|
NEWS |
|
Philfoot: an exhitbition and a competition
Information and applications: Quiet please: action! During the World Cup, the Stade de France, which is to host no less than 9 games including the Opener and the Final, will be the ultimate theatre of suspense. For the moment, however, as building work goes on, a drama of another nature is unfolding as the stadium provides the setting for a television film. "Un père inattendu", starring Yves Rénier and Grâce de Capitani, is to be screened on Canal + in the autumn. And it will be offering French TV viewers a sneak preview - a few months before the inaugural France vs Spain match on 28 January 1998 - of the new stadium's impressive installations.
Partners-City forum: the party spirit
Radioactivity The French Organising Committee and Radio France signed a co-operation agreement at the end of June. As the official World Cup Radio Partner, Radio France will be offering listeners a series of programmes on various wavelengths, including a number of broadcasts in foreign languages to entertain the many visitors expected from abroad in 1998. |
Another of the World Cup goals is to make the link between football and culture. As a FRANCE 98 Partner, La Poste has naturally chosen to concentrate on philately. So during the World Cup finals (25 May to 18 July, to be precise) the La Poste Museum will be putting on "Philfoot FRANCE 98", the first international stamp exhibition ever mounted around the theme of football. At the same time as the exhibition, a big competition for young stamp collectors (under 21) in France will be launched in the ten World Cup host cities. A jury in each city will vote for the finest stamp collection centred around football, and the winners will be awarded a seat at the Stade de France during the World Cup. In addition, all the FRANCE 98 stamps and philatelic products issued by La Poste will be on sale in the Museum, and mail can be sent from there stamped with the special World Cup post-mark. It's a chance for some fine souvenirs.
"The World Cup will be a real success if it isn't just limited to the staging of the 64 matches. Naturally the sporting event will be the focal point, but the host cities themselves need to be absolutely in step with the World Cup as well. So everyone who wants to make a party of the whole occasion should be turning out in force." This was how Michel Platini opened the Partners-City forum on 1 July this year at the Méridien Montparnasse Hotel in Paris. It was a novel occasion, whose aim was to bring together all categories of Official World Cup Partners to look at the entertainment projects proposed by the 10 host cities. All the cities had stands where they could present their programmes (shows, concerts, fairs and so on) and offer Partners the opportunity of teaming up with them. The forum was organised by the CFO's Special Events department and attended by 150 people. But though this was an impressive turn-out, the most heart-warming aspect at the end of the day was the enthusiasm shown by visitors and presenters alike for working together in the near future, in order to make the World Cup a truly "swinging" party.