WC: 2015 — Team France

[Bookker]

hi guys, isnt Eliot Berthon and Johann Morant good enough to play for NT ? thx

Morant has been tested in 2012 and 2013 but he made poor games (bad passes, a bit slow, indiscipline...)
I seriously don't know why he's in NLA except for his physical play.

For Berthon his lack of size is not an advantage because even if he has some offensive skills, he's not yet better as our top-6. But he's still young and he will be part of the group in the next years probably

 

[MTLAzzurri]

why isn't Bozon on the team? Was he not selected or did he decline/was injured?

 

[Belizarius]

why isn't Bozon on the team? Was he not selected or did he decline/was injured?

Nobody knows. Talked to his father recently and he didn't have any explanation from the staff.
Tim played 1 AHL game to finish the season but never was called to the NT after that. We don't know why.
I guess they chose experienced players or guys who did all the preparation camp instead of a bubble forward who would have come late.
But that's pure speculation, nobody knows.

 

[DangeRouss]

Close losses vs Germany and Switzerland game' Refs gonna cost us our place in Group A

 

[t0ny]

Close losses vs Germany and Switzerland game' Refs gonna cost us our place in Group A

"Whining" about the reff' never brings anything imo but i understand the frustration/disappointment. We have to work ours butts out in the remaining games and grab points... hopefully

Relegation would be dreadful

 

[t0ny]

Juste like i said
They worked theirs a$$ out and prevailed at the end.
Congratz to them, we stay in the A.

 

[LiveeviL]

France has done well. I really would hope that the game had a take-off in France and gained some popularity. It is much needed to get one of the big European countries on the boat.

 

[Eagle Eye Cherry]

How popular is hockey in France? I would imagine it must be more popular around the Swiss regions than any other area in France, right?

 

[t0ny]

How popular is hockey in France? I would imagine it must be more popular around the Swiss regions than any other area in France, right?

Well hockey is not very popular in the hexagon (France).
If we speak team sports only i will go with soccer, rugby, Basketball, handball long before hockey. Even the Davis Cup is more scrutinized than hockey.
This year Gap won the ligue Magnus (top pro hockey division in France) but only few french ppl know that. Hockey is like volley-ball TV coverage wise which is not good here.

We have some teams near the mountains (Alpes) thats right like Grenoble, Briançon and Chamonix but we also have some very well known team in plains area like Rouen, Amiens or Angers.

And u have some teams near Germany like Strasbourg, Epinal or Mulhouse etc...
Generally speaking hockey is more popular in an area if the offer of pro sport is not that huge, beside off course some places where hockey is truly a thing.

And numbers show it : 17 863 persons played organized hockey in 2008 and the average attendance for a ligue Magnus game is ~ 1400 persons.

Not the greatest picture in the world but it's slowly getting better.

 

[RobertR]

Whats TV coverage? Are the biggest channels showing WC?

 

[t0ny]

Whats TV coverage? Are the biggest channels showing WC?

There isn't one "big channel" showing anything looking like hockey :/
One sport channel broadcasted last year ligue Magnus play offs but thats it. For this WC i had to stream every single game, TV coverage is soooo poor, like confidential.
We used to have the SC finals on C+ (channel) but i don't know if it's still the case.

The 2017 WC hosted in Germany and here should change that a little bit, tiny bit, at least i hope.

 

[Belizarius]

Videos are coming along, slowly.
This season we had 1 league Magnus game each week for free on lequipe.fr (L'Equipe is the top sports newspaper in France).
A few games were on the TV channel "Lequipe21" (see above).
That's a progress, and some newspaper and medias website had a good coverage of the World Championship, including top newspaper website lemonde.fr, local newspaper like The Dauphiné Libéré. WC were covered by TV channel Sport+, but this channel is going to be closed in june.

Hockey is a local sport : when a city has a top team, crowd is very good and local medias are very good. That's the case in hockey cities like Rouen, Amiens or Tours and of course the mountains.
Next season will be interesting as big cities like Lyon and Bordeaux will play in Magnus league. Should be more attractive from a media point of view.