Still unknown to the general public, a universe bubbling with creativity is in full expansion, live on Twitch or through YouTube videos. “Young people look at football differently, they spend their time on social networks,” explains Bastien Tardy, from Reech, a company specializing in influence marketing. For him, “Youtubeurs and streamers were chosen by the audience, not by a TV channel that imposes a presenter, they all broke through thanks to their talent, their work and the audience”, continues Tardy.
According to all the content creators met by AFP, it is “the freedom of tone” that they like the most. “Total freedom of action”, adds Wiloo, 553,000 subscribers on YouTube where he favors the analysis of the game. On these Internet channels, “we are not restrained, it is a tone that the public likes, which corresponds to him, especially the younger generations”, estimates Bruce Grannec, one of the hosts of the weekly talk show “Hors-Jeu” on Twitch. And this style seems to have a future. “We grew up, young people grew up at the same time as us, we feel that a switch is taking place between TV and social networks, that’s why a lot of shows like Hors-Jeu or others work very well”, he adds.
What Bruce “favorites is the interaction with the chat, being able to laugh during the show with the messages” from the community. “People want to take part in the show, to react”, abounds Bastien Tardy, “we can ask lots of questions during a live show, the programs are co-created with the public”. Building on this success, Youtubers reach an increasingly large audience. If Romain Molina collaborates with many “classic” international media (The Guardian, the New York Times, the BBC…), he made himself known through his channel. It “allows him to reach those who do not like to read too much, to popularize and make (his) information accessible to the greatest number”, explains the person concerned. “For me it’s important,” he says.
His investigations, for example, contributed to bringing down the president of the Haitian football federation, Yves Jean-Bart, accused of sexual assault on young female footballers. “There would never have been so much impact if I didn’t have this broadcast” on video, says Molina. Zack Nani often exceeds a million views with his interviews. In football, he managed in early November to land a one-on-one with Karim Benzema fresh from the Ballon d’Or: 1.6 million views in total for almost an hour and a half of maintenance.
But despite the growing success of these content creators, there still remains a form of feud between old and new. “Some older journalists or many Ligue 1 club press officers don’t understand what I’m doing. Saying YouTube is almost an insult,” smiles Florian Gautier, 27. He innovated with his “Two nights with” concept where he spent 48 hours with athletes, such as Dortmund striker Sébastien Haller. “However, it’s only a way to put videos on a platform, what I do is simply documentaries”, adds the one who claims to be a “sports journalist”.
However, the modern tone of the streamers is starting to appeal to the “oldies”. The L’Équipe channel has attracted four of them to its next back-to-school schedule, the offside trio Bruce, Brak and Quento, as well as Zack Nani. They will host the program “L’Équipe de choc”, around Bertrand Latour or France Pierron. The ancients and the moderns, it “makes fun” Brak. “What stops anyone from talking about football?” he asks. “We’ve always watched it, it’s our passion, and I’m sorry to say it like that, but we don’t fart higher than our ass, we tell it as we live it. Apparently it interests people (150,000 views per show, editor’s note), for me the legitimacy is there ”.
