Sport in France

Sport plays an important role in French society and the country has a strong sporting history. The most-watched sport in France is football. rugby union is highly popular, mainly in the south. Rugby Union, compared to football, is seen to have greater significance to French culture. Other major sports include handball, basketball, cycling, sailing, tennis, alpine skiing but also swimming and athletics. The national stadium is the Stade de France.

Football

Main article: Football in France

Football is the most popular sport in France with 2,225,595 licensed players in 2009. Ligue 1 is the French professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division of the French football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Ligue 2. The most successful club in the French first division history is AS Saint-Étienne with 11 championships (last one in 1981), followed by the 2010 champion, Olympique de Marseille with 10 titles.

The Coupe de France is the premier knockout cup competition in French football. The Coupe de la Ligue is the second major cup competition in France. The Trophée des champions is played each July as a one-off match between the Coupe de France winners and the Ligue 1 champions.

Only one French club, Olympique de Marseille, has won the UEFA Champions League in 1993.

The France national football team represents France in international football. France was one of the four European teams that participated at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and are one of eight national teams to have won the competition, which they did in 1998 when they hosted the Cup. The team also won the UEFA Euro 1984 and 2000, the 2001 and 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 1984 Summer Olympics football tournament.

Motorsport

France has held a round of the Formula One Championship at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours (Magny-Cours) since 1991, but a round of Formula One at different tracks since 1950.

As of 2010, France has six major FIA championships World Champions: Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993 Formula One champion), Didier Auriol (1994 WRC champion), Sébastien Loeb (record 7 times and current WRC champion: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), Yvan Muller (2008 WTC champion), Jean-Louis Schlesser (1989 and 1990 WSC champion), Yannick Dalmas and Ferdinand de Lesseps (1992 WSC champions).

French constructors have also won 3 Formula One championships and 11 WRC championships.

France is site of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France. The race winners include 38 French drivers and 13 French teams.

The Dakar Rally was created in France in 1978. 64 French champions have won the rally including 38 cars drivers and co-drivers, 20 motorcycles riders and 6 trucks drivers.

France holds an annual Ice racing Championship at the end of each year, called the Andros Trophy.

Handball

There are 392,761 licensed handball players in France as of 2009. The French National team is currently World Champion and European Champion. They also won the 1995 and 2001 World Men's Handball Championship, the 2006 European Men's Handball Championship and the 2008 Olympic Games Tournament.

The women won the 2003 World Women's Handball Championship.

Basketball

Basketball is also a popular team sport with 447,942 licensed players (2005 statistic). The sport is governed by Fédération Française de Basket-Ball (FFBB; French Basketball Federation), which operates professional leagues for both men and women. The men's Ligue Nationale de Basketball has two levels, Pro A and Pro B. Pro A sends nine teams into continent-wide club competitions each season—three to the top-level Euroleague (one directly into the Regular Season phase, and two into the competition's qualifying rounds), three to the second-level Eurocup, and three to the third-level EuroChallenge. The women's Ligue Féminine de Basketball operates as a single league of 14 teams. In 2009–10, the league sent four teams to EuroLeague Women, the women's equivalent of the Euroleague.

As of the 2008-09 NBA season, 14 French citizens have played in the NBA in the USA and Canada. Eleven are currently playing, most notably San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker, with three NBA titles to his credit; Charlotte Bobcats forward Boris Diaw; and Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah, also notable for his college career at the University of Florida in which he starred on a team that won two NCAA titles with the same starting lineup.

The sport has overtaken rugby union in terms of licenced players, implying that basketball might have surpassed it's popularity in France.

Rugby union

 Rugby union in France

Rugby union was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents. While football is much more popular nationally, rugby union is predominant around Toulouse, the French Basque country and Catalonia. Elite French clubs participate in the domestic club competition - the Top 14. Clubs also compete in the European knock-out competition, the Heineken Cup. It is the ninth largest French team sport in the terms of licensed players with 262,000 licensed players (2007).

The national side competes annually in the Six Nations Championship. France has been to every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987, and has been a runner-up on two occasions. France hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Rugby league

Rugby league in France

Rugby league (rugby à 13 or jeu à 13) has been played in France since the 1930s. As with rugby union, the heartland of the game is the south of the country. Catalans Dragons are a rugby league team based in Perpignan, and are currently the only French team to compete in the top tier of European rugby league, the Super League. Toulouse Olympique are the only French team to compete in the second tier of European rugby league, the Co-operative Championship.

Tennis

Tennis is the second most popular French sport in terms of the number of licensed players with 1,054,513 licensed tennis players in France (2005). France holds the tennis Grand Slam tournament Roland Garros. France's current stars include Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Marion Bartoli, and Aravane Rezai. Other stars from the past include Yannick Noah, Amélie Mauresmo, and Mary Pierce.

Cycling

France holds the annual cycling race Tour de France, which takes place each July and lasts for three weeks which has been won by 21 different French cyclists in its 96 year history.

Sailing

Professional sailing in France is centered on singlehanded/shorthanded ocean racing with the pinnacle of this branch of the sport being the Vendee Globe singlehanded around the world race which starts every 4 years from the French Atlantic coast. Other significant events include the Solitaire du Figaro, Mini Transat 6.50, Tour de France a Voile and Route de Rhum transatlantic race. France has been a regular competitor in the Americas Cup since 1998.

Pétanque

Pétanque is mostly played in the South of France. Pétanque is not considered as a sport by many northern Frenchmen though the international federation is recognized by the IOC. Professional players play the very competitive form of Pétanque which is called Pétanque Sport, under precise rules. The competitive form is played by about 480,000 persons licensed with the Federation Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP). The FFPJP is the 4th largest sports federation in France.said pa-tonk

Parkour

Developed in France, parkour ("art du déplacement") is a physical activity that is difficult to categorize. It is an art that resembles self-defense and martial arts. According to the founder David Belle, the spirit of parkour is guided in part by the notions of "escape" and "reach," that is, the idea of using quick thinking with dexterity to get out of difficult situations.

An important characteristic of parkour is efficiency. The basic meaning of this is that a traceur must not merely move as fast as he can, bur's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last), efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term. fibhtim

Table football

Table football (babyfoot) is a very popular pastime in bars and in homes in France, and the French are the predominant winners of worldwide table football competitions.

Orienteering

Orienteering is a reasonably popular sport in France; it is regulated by the Fédération Française de Course d'Orientation (FFCO) .

Cricket

Cricket is a developing sport is France. Some reports point that cricket was invented in France. However, the sport is relatively unknown due to inadequate media coverage. In fact, the 1900 Olympic games, the only one where cricket was played, featured bitter rivals England and France taking on each other. A rematch of the two teams is said to take place just before the 2012 Olympics.

(source:wikipedia)