HASAN SARBAKHSHIAN / AP

FEELING BLUE >>>> Anxious French fans watch their side grind on to a 0-0 draw with Switzerland

World Cup Blog | Bruce Crumley Why No Joie de Vivre? subscribe to TIME Printable Version email this story Bruce Crumley: Read all his blog entries

Posted Sunday, June 18, 2006; 13.13BST
French innovation, style, and flair have allowed France to lead and inspire the rest of the world in various areas over the centuries. It is safe to say, however, that no one is turning to the French as a model of football fan culture.

Fashion, engineering, cuisine, the art of lip pursing, no problem; France is bona fided up. Mobilizing a large body of excited, experienced, embarrassingly

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demonstrative soccer addicts prepared to make utter boobs of themselves in the higher interest of showing their sporting allegiance: we're talking Maginot line in recently-bought Adidas jerseys. God love les Bleus, but they may suffer the wimpiest, most self-hating fan base this side of a Celine Dion concert.

Consider this: just nine hours before kick-off of the France-South Korea match whose result would shape, if not determine, France's future in this Cup, there were quite nearly as many blue jerseys in the streets of central Leipzig — those of Japan, being worn by their fans — as there were maillots bleus of the Equipe de France. Red Korean devils, however, were in abundance. Think that had more to do with Koreans having a more passionate football fanat-itude than it did with them having an easier commute to Germany than the French?

"Stuttgart is right across the border from France, and even coming here doesn't involve crossing the Channel — much less oceans and continents," says Thomas Valier, spotted wearing what most hard core France fans consider the sign of a longer-timer: the 1998 World Cup winning team's jersey, without the gold star added after France winning its title sent millions of newly interested fans to stores. Though Valier didn't find fellow French fans all that out-numbered by Koreans, he did acknowledge that — unlike Korean supporters present — "French fans aren't going to sacrifice their regular summer vacation by building it entirely around a World Cup trip to Germany."

Know why? Because unlike the French, the Koreans — and Dutch, English, Japanese, and Brazilians present — simply don't have that football fan fever. Say what you will about England fans (and I usually say a lot, almost all of it nasty), but find one guy screaming "Eng-er-lund" at a match site — or even in a nation hosting an international — you're sure to encounter 150,000 more around the corner, ready to turn the place into their own red and white party that others are allowed to sit in on (as long as they pretend to support England, or are willing to take enormous crap for not doing so). However annoying that can occasionally be, European football would be bloodless and colorless with out them. Ditto for the Dutch, who are the same consummate fans as the English, differing only with their chants and songs nobody can understand. And even the Koreans — a footballing nation no one had ever heard of before the last World Cup — have allowed themselves to be possessed by the footballing demon, and ask nothing more than the chance to Linda Blair their passion and team dedication in ways that will shame their families forever.

So why not the French, who continue to contest (despite all evidence to the contrary) that they are indeed a great footballing nation, and have the first-tier pro league to prove it (minus, they note, the endless cash that give English, Spanish, and Italian leagues an unfair advantage)? "It may not be a question of football culture, but culture tout court," says a France fan identifying himself as Laurent from Strasbourg, after inciting a passing group of French school kids to take up the cry "Allez les Bleus!". "Being noisy, making a scene, being proud and happy for something in public is frowned upon, and that spills over into football. Even in 1998, you didn't see people really getting into it until France had made it into the quarter final."

Pausing the time it takes to rebuff a local woman seeking to buy the Zidane jersey off his back for 20 euros, and no more ("Is she crazy?," Laurent laughs. "I wouldn't sell this for 120!"), Laurent adds the offensive poverty of French play since 2002 also explains some degree of fan fatigue. "Personally, I'd rather we lose to South Korea 3-2 than come away with another 0-0," Laurent says. "Football is sport, but it's also spectacle. People aren't getting that now."

PETER DEJONG / AP CONTRAST >>>> A South Korea fan celebrates victory over Togo

But as England and Netherlands fans know, a large part of the show comes by fans themselves. Notably, fans willing to suspend enough of their daily cynicism and weariness to masochistically invest all their hopes and joy in the feet of a band of strangers. Winning, in the end, is only as sweet as fans' total abandon to their team and the campaign they're in. "In England, it's a religion. People live it together; companies organize business around match starts on game days," reminds Valier, who works in banking in London. "People don't need to be in the stadium to be completely involved". Meanwhile, Valier notes, France fans aren't as disinterested as all that. "There may be only a few thousand at the France-Switzerland match, but there were 18 million back home watching on television."

Perhaps, but when asked what he thought it would take for his fellow fans to become the harder-core sort like the English, Dutch — or, jeepers, even the far bolder Irish or Belgians — Valier's reply doesn't sound very encouraging. "Another World Cup like the one in 1998." A tall task indeed, for French footballing. It's great news, however, for rugby — with France hosting that sport's World Cup next year. In the meantime, there's a football World Cup on right now. Come on French fans: come to Germany, wear scratchy blue garments, be seen drinking warm beer in public, even shout along with the guy next to you who you're sure works a fry machine and scratches himself in front of people back home. Let the football flow through you. Take a lesson from Albion. Unpurse those lips.

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