THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL — The French league hopes to claim a piece of the vast international audience for soccer by holding its annual Champions Trophy match at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
Ligue-1 in France trails far behind the English Premiership or Italy’s Serie A in television viewership and merchandise sales among the growing legions of European soccer fans around the world, and Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc hopes this game will “help close the gap a little.
“I find it a really original idea to come here to Canada,” the former French national team player added on Friday. “Its my first time here.
“I always find it strange to fly for seven or eight hours and land in a country where they speak my language. And to be able to showcase French football to people who are French-speaking like ourselves is always a good idea.”
The Champions Trophy will pit Bordeaux, the Ligue-1 champion, against Guingamp, the French Cup winner, on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, televised in French only on Radio-Canada) under the Olympic Stadium dome.
Most European leagues have similar competitions, like the Charity Shield match in England, but this will be the first time France takes its version off home turf in a bid to win fans abroad.
It falls at a time of the year — just before the start of the 2009-2010 European season — when many of that continent’s top clubs are on tour. Among them, Real Madrid is getting set to play Toronto FC and Everton will be the opponent in the MLS all-star game.
As of Friday, about 29,000 tickets had been sold for Bordeaux-Guingamp, but with the walkup, organizers expect to top the Champions Trophy record attendance of 30,529 set when Lyon won at home in 2006.
The match promoter is the Montreal Impact of the United Soccer Leagues, who will face Bordeaux in a friendly match at 13,000-seat Saputo Stadium on Wednesday.
Bordeaux is seeking a second straight Champions Trophy win. A year ago, the Girondins used a win on penalties over Lyon as a springboard to their first league championship in 10 years, ending Lyon’s seven-year Ligue-1 reign.
Their first eleven includes French international midfielders Alou Diarra and Yoann Gourcuff and goalkeeper Cedric Carrasso as well as Argentine striker Fernando Cavenaghi.
“It would be a good start to our season to win this trophy,” said Blanc. “Even though were still in the preparation period for our season, this is an official match and we want to win.”
Guingamp, a city of about 8,000 in Brittany in northwestern France, plays in Ligue-2 but saw its unheralded side knock off three top-tier teams in Cup play, including powerful Toulouse in the semifinals and Rennes in the final.
They will be without captain Christian Bassila, who is suspended, but manager Victor Zvunka says his club should not be written off.
“In a one-off match, a lot of things come into play — like the small team against the big team and the small team wanting to pull off an upset,” said Zvunda. “But our team last season had a lot of experience and wanted to do something big.
“Theyre all motivated. We have players who had already won the French Cup or the League Cup and who had a lot of Ligue-1 experience and were used to playing against that level of team and to play in important matches.”
Guingamp has one player with a special interest in facing Bordeaux — midfielder Thibault Giresse.
His father, Alain Giresse, was one of France’s all-time greats and a stalwart in midfield on a Bordeaux side that won three championships in the 1980s.
“I was born in Bordeaux so it’s special for me, but I have to put that aside for the match,” said Giresse.
Gourcuff said his club won’t take Guingamp lightly.
“We have to respect them because they had a good run in the French Cup, so theyre not here by a fluke,” he said.
The Champions Trophy is not a major event in the French league season, but it marks the unofficial start of a new campaign and has drawn about 30 broadcast and print reporters from France, where it will be televised live.
Playing indoors on synthetic turf will be a challenge for both clubs, and jet-lag may also come into play.
But Diarra said Bordeaux trains sometimes on artificial turf at home and “while were used to playing on grass, we can adapt.”
Blanc rued the fact that, as in regular league matches, the teams will be allowed only three substitutions.
“What I regret most is that we didn’t make an agreement between the teams and the league to have five substitutions,” he said. “Both teams will have eight players playing the full 90 minutes or more, and at this stage of our preparation for the season theyre not all ready to play 90 minutes.”
Bordeaux has brought Moroccan international Marouane Chamakh, even though he is looking at signing with an English side, possibly Tottenham or Sunderland.
The Girondins begin regular season play Aug. 8 at home against Lens, while Guingamp resumes Ligue-2 play Aug. 7 against Ajaccio.