Baseball in France

Baseball is seen as a niche sport in France, not receiving much public support or wide media coverage. The daily newspaper L'Equipe has some coverage on Mondays for the French Championship games, and online, Stadeo.tv has streaming video of recent games, also mostly of the Championships.

The sport is overseen by the Fédération Française de Baseball et Softball (the FFBS) which organizes the French National Baseball team that plays in international competitions. France has played in the Baseball World Cup, Intercontinental Cup and European Championship.

In 2009, France was ranked 27th by the IBAF in the international rankings, and 8th among European nations.

Pro clubs and interclub competitions

There are two main competitions in the country. One is the Challenge de France, where the 8 best teams in the country compete. The winner of the Challenge qualifies for the European Cup. The 2007 edition was held in Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc and in Pineuilh, Aquitaine. The 2008 edition was held in Clermont-Ferrand.

The other competition is the Championnat de France élite, where the clubs in Division Elite compete for the title.

There are four levels of senior competitions in France, two of which are national titles: "Elite", for the eight best teams, and "National", with three groups of 7 to 8 teams (divided in to groups A, B and C). Group A usually has 8 teams, and groups B and C each usually have seven teams. At a regional level, 13 regions of the country have a "Division d'Honneur" and 3 have a "Promotion d'Honneur". In total, there are 125 teams that take part in the various senior championships (85 clubs and 40 backup or reserve teams) as of 2009.

The first and highest level of competition is the Division Elite, composed solely of the 8 best teams in France. Below this is the National division, with 3 groups known as N1 group A, N1 group B and N1 group C. The third level, below National, is the Division d'honneur, composed of 13 regional leagues, each with 3 to 8 teams each (they are located in Normandy, Paris Ile de France, Rhône-Alpes, Languedoc, Aquitaine, Centre de la France, Poitou-Charentes, Bretagne (Brittany), PACA, Auvergne, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Bourgogne, and Midi-Pyrénées). The fourth and lowest level is the "Promotion d'Honneur" of 3 regional leagues (with each league having from 4 to 11 teams). These are located in Paris-Île-de-France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Poitou-Charentes.

In addition to the senior levels,, there are also several junior leagues for children from 6 to 18 years old. There is also a high school and collegiate level of competition.

Player development in France

The FFBS also operates two national training centres, the “Pôle France Baseball”. The centres are located in Toulouse (in Southern France) and in Rouen (in Northern France). Each centre offers a university-style campus where the top players from across France are selected go to school and play baseball at the High School and University levels. Each centre receives government funding from the Ministry of Sport and from various sport federations. The centres run a 38-week program from September to June. They are also supported by the various teams in Division Elite and the lower levels. MLB also sends staff and coaches for about 6 weeks each year to help with player development.

Most notably, Joris Bert and Frederic Hanvi who both play in the Minor Leagues, were developed at the French Academies.

Description of each Academy

The Rouen academy first opened in 1997 with a group of 13-15 year olds. It was recognized as a “Pôle France” in 2008.

The Toulouse academy was started in September 1996 in Paris, later moving to Toulouse for better player development opportunities.

Most of the players at these academies become international players for the French National team.

sources: http://www.ffbsc.org/ Official website of the FFBS

http://www.ffbsc.org/imgs/articles/presentationpoles_anglais.pdf Excellent pdf document describing the "Poles", in English.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_en_France and other articles on the French wikipedia.

See Also

• French Baseball Glossary