This beginning of the week is marked by two events in sport in France. The unsuccessful call for tenders of the Professional Football League on Monday with potential broadcasters. And the Olympic and Paralympic week in schools. Virginie Phulpin prefers to watch children play sports rather than lament this French football that nobody wants.
Sport cannot just be a show you watch on TV. That could be the moral of the story. The umpteenth episode of football TV rights shows us that potential new broadcasters like Amazon or DAZN are interested in our championship, but not enough to pay the price, and that the usual partners like Canal Plus and BeIn Sport do not have participated. The League has 2 days to find a solution.
So rather than waiting trembling to know if the French clubs will be saved from the waters, you might as well take a ball and go play in the court. It’s one of the things we can do on a daily basis. Play sports at school. With this Olympic and Paralympic week, we are not just dreaming of the best athletes in the world who will meet in Paris in 2024. We are training children in dancing. And we take back the sport. We make it a daily reflex.
Because there is an emergency. There is a big problem with sedentary lifestyle among children, even more among adolescents. It was accentuated by the health crisis. Ideally, you should spend an hour a day physically. However, 80% of children do not. This leads to health problems, obesity for example. So when Virginie Phulpin sees these athletes going to schools, setting an example, spreading the good word, she says to herself that we are touching on something essential.
Sports at school are just as important as other subjects.
School is the head and the legs. And sport should be as fundamental as French and math. In France, there is still too much tendency to consider sports lessons not as an option, but as a recreation, something not very important. We don’t block our noses, but almost, when we talk about PE.
Let’s change our outlook, and our habits. Today there is a real desire to develop physical activity from an early age in the national sport and health strategy. So much the better! It is also good for building individuals. Psychomotor development in the little ones, learning rules, teamwork, building personality, surpassing oneself, managing frustration, socializing. It brings all that, sport. It seems obvious, but it always gets better saying it. We feel better when we exercise.
So it can’t be the fifth wheel of the coach, it’s a real social issue, and an essential part of the school. Sport is ours, each of us. Not just to those who put in enough money to broadcast football on TV.
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