In 2020, the European Club Association (ECA) published a survey which went almost unnoticed. The study noted, however, that only 28% of respondents aged 18 to 24 said they were “fans” or “particularly fans” of football, compared to more than 35% of their elders. This survey clearly anticipated a disenchantment among younger generations and, more broadly, football fans. A trend that has only grown over the past four years.
Decline in audiences
This drop in interest does not only affect Ligue 1 as we sometimes hear. The prestigious Champions League also attracts much less in its new formula. PSG’s first matches, for example, obtained disappointing audience scores on Canal+. Far from restarting the machine, this multiplication of tempting posters tends rather to trivialize them.
Same trend for the France team. The recent opposition between the Blues and Israel thus attracted less than 4 million viewers on TF1, the worst score in five years and the latter concerned a meeting broadcast on TMC against Bolivia.
Too much football kills football
So what’s going on? Quoted by the Teamthe former footballer, Bixente Lizarazu, who has become a consultant, gives his analysis of the situation: “There is a form of saturation around the football product: too many matches, too many competitions which are useless, too many subscriptions to watch them, a lack of benchmarks”.
Also interviewed by our colleagues, Laurent Salvaudon, editorial director of the channel and digital creations of RMC Sportrecalls that this sport faces fierce competition in the entertainment offering. The viewer can therefore choose between watching a match, scrolling through their social networks, and spending time on the major streaming platforms: YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, etc.
Some observers also point out the poor spectacle offered during the matches. We would therefore be dealing with increasingly formatted football to the detriment of creativity. Likewise, players would be physically exhausted by an overloaded schedule, which doesn’t help.
Finally, note that subscription prices, often considered too high, encourage the French to turn to pirate streaming and IPTV offers. A recent Odoxa survey also found that 5% of French people, or around 2.5 million of our fellow citizens, use illegal means to view meetings. It is therefore also possible that this influences the audience scores that we mentioned above.
How to restart the machine?
To try to regain the interest of spectators, Laurent Salvaudon puts forward the idea of a change of rules. He thus cites the idea of only authorizing headers in the two penalty areas to make the game more fluid, kick touches, the establishment of a double goal if the latter is scored from outside the penalty area. surface…
We can also question this approach to football where the spectator is only a consumer eager for thrills. As journalist Jérôme Latta explained in a recent column for The World : “In wanting to make it entertainment, we have nevertheless made it lose its identity”.
For his part, former footballer Gerard Piqué estimated in 2023 that “the traditional football product is outdated”. He thus advocated the addition of rules supposed to save this sport. In its new Kings League, which attempts to bring together the best of streaming and video games by transposing them to football, the teams have 7 players who are drawn at random from a large number of registered players.
Alongside them, we find former big names in the discipline. The matches only last 40 minutes and certain surprise advantages are available: an additional player, a penalty… In other words, a further step towards football seen as pure entertainment.
Football leaders and broadcasters would do well to question their deregulation choices made over the last 20 years which have brought us to the current crisis. Interest in a discipline is not eternal and the patience of spectators and supporters has limits.
