Organization, security, transport… the Rugby World Cup takes place from September 8 to October 28 in France. Matches are scheduled in nine stadiums in ten cities across the country. Less than a year from the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympics, this competition could have “repetition” value. The memory of the disaster of the Champions League final at the Stade de France in June 2022 remains in everyone’s memory.
Don’t miss the event. In less than a year, from July 26, 2024, the Olympic and Paralympic Games will open in Paris. But long before this deadline, the capital and other towns in France are hosting a leading international sporting event from September 8 to October 28: the tenth edition of the Rugby World Cup.
This is the second time that France has hosted the Rugby World Cup since its creation in 1987. The previous one dates back to 2007. It was jointly organized with Wales and Scotland.
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For the 2023 edition, nearly 600,000 foreign visitors are expected in France. Whether in stadiums during matches, in establishments which broadcast the matches (bars, restaurants, etc.) or “villages rugby” mis en place in the host cities, the places of festivities should not be missing.
“General repetition”
The Rugby World Cup should also be an opportunity to analyze possible flaws of all kinds with a view to hosting the Olympic Games. “We will be able to test how the flow of spectators and transport are managed, explains Carole Gomez, associate researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris), specializing in the geopolitics of sport, and author of the book “Géopolitique du rugby” (Dunod editions, 2023). This will be watched, analyzed, an event that will be the subject of various feedback and improvements if necessary” in view of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
But a Rugby World Cup and the Games are two very different sports competitions. The Rugby World Cup and the Olympic and Paralympic Games are certainly “two extremely important sporting mega-events, but really different”, insists Carole Gomez.
The researcher takes the example of the organization. There will be “a dissemination of the competition in nine cities for the Rugby World Cup, while it is mainly concentrated in the Paris region” for the Olympics. “It is not at all the same calendar, nor the same type of public, and it will be important to take this into account”, continues the specialist. Nor the same flow of visitors. If the number of foreign visitors to the World Cup is estimated at 600,000, it amounts to in millions for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Like France, Japan has already gone through this preparation when it “hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2019 before the Olympic and Paralympic Games” thereafter, recalls Carole Gomez. She specifies that one of the challenges of the 2019 World Cup was “to be a kind of ‘dress rehearsal’ for this great international competition”.
Erasing the memory of the Champions League final
The French authorities, like sports fans, remember the management difficulties and the scenes of chaos at the Stade de France during the Champions League final on May 28, 2022. Almost two months more later, in a report, the Senate had pointed to a “sequence of dysfunctions” and “failures in the preparation”.
In the fall of 2022, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had already referred to the Rugby World Cup as “a dress rehearsal” for the Olympic Games, which will require the mobilization of “7,000 police and gendarmes per day”.
A few months later, in April, the interministerial delegate for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and major sporting events, Michel Cadot, had indicatedduring a round table in the National Assembly on the organization of the Rugby World Cup, that “on security issues, on other subjects, it is to a certain extent a test, a test which must be successful”.
Concerning the security means put in place, the Ministry of the Interior indicated at the end of July on its website that a “national strategic command center (CNCS) will be created specifically” for the Olympic Games and the Rugby World Cup. Placed under the leadership of Place Beauvau, this “temporary structure will be activated between September and October 2023 (Rugby World Cup) then between May and September 2024 (torch relay, Olympic and Paralympic Games).”
On the police force deployed, Europe 1 relayed information that up to 80% of the police could be mobilized during the Rugby World Cup. Contacted by France 24, the Ministry of the Interior indicated that Gérald Darmanin will hold a press conference on Wednesday September 6 at 9 a.m., during which he must detail the security system during the sporting event.
The national police have already indicated on “X” that it will be “mobilized in force” in the host cities “on the ground to ensure the safety of the public and the players”. It also relayed in early July on its website the laws and gestures to have during the competition regarding the consumption of alcohol, narcotics or even noise pollution.
Diplomatic outreach
For Carole Gomez, France must “be able to organize the World Cup so that it participates in French sports diplomacy. Give a positive image of the country while performing in sport.” It is also for Paris to “promote a certain number of official and unofficial discussions and to show itself at the heart of the reactor of international sport”.
Moreover, the organization of the event results “from a policy led by both the Ministry of Sports and that of Foreign Affairs aimed at making sport a diplomatic issue”, specifies the specialist. This characteristic was recalled by President Emmanuel Macron during the ambassadors conference, end of August. Referring to the Rugby World Cup, the Head of State spoke of a “diplomatic event, an event of influence”, during which “many leaders, in particular from the southern hemisphere” will be in Paris.
France should be expected by visitors and fans on two main points. On the quality of the show first. “Are we going to remember this competition with exceptional matches, turnarounds, performances? This is not due to the organizing committee or the organizing country”, continues Carole Gomez. On its “capacities of reception then, through the questions of fluidity, atmosphere, transport but also of accessibility and visit of the country”.
Strike moves during the tournament
On the transport front, social movements have already been announced in France and Île-de-France during the World Cup. A strike notice has been filed by two RATP unions for September 8, the day the tournament begins. “On the social level, the company has negotiated agreements aimed at rewarding the exceptional contribution to this event of the employees concerned. Agreements have thus been concluded with the drivers and the station agents”, explains the transport company – partner of the worldwide –, contacted by France 24.
However, the company wants to be reassuring. “To date, two unions (FO-RATP for station agents and UNSA Transport for maintenance agents) have filed a strike notice” during the World Cup, but “the latter will not be likely to disrupt the smooth running of the competition as well as its success”.
A strike movement is also expected among the air traffic controllers. A notice was filed by the majority union of the profession: the SNCTA, for September 15, and for a period of 24 hours. Something to disturb the skies of France, a week after the start of the tournament. In a press release published on its websitethe national committee of the SNCTA “calls for mobilization in order to record the catch-up of inflation and the establishment of compulsory annual negotiations”.
So many challenges to overcome if France wants to transform the test.
