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The air, here on the cusp of Euro 2016, is thick with excitement.
These lovely major tournaments transform the off-season; barren months where transfer rumour dregs and bald-faced revenue-raising pre-season tours provide the only soccer-satiation are filled instead with rich, meaty meals of competitive international football.
Well, thanks to the expanded format, and resulting month-long running time, the competitiveness part might end up feeling a little compromised, in spite of the pleasure seeing a Welsh superstar play at a European Championships will bring.
Only the worst eight teams will be eliminated at the conclusion of the group stage, and the state of those fateful eight will no doubt spur a hateful debate, where the patriciate will pontificate about the need to abbreviate, perhaps in time for Euro 2028. Assonance and elitism aside, hands are being rubbed together, en masse, as the opening kick-off approaches.
Except, sadly, in France itself. Much of Paris is underwater, with a quarter of a million artworks at risk in the Lourve’s basement storage, and a heated mass strike, mainly headed up by the various French rail unions, has smouldered over the last week or so. Alternative deals have been thrashed out, proposed, and rejected, and the threat of a partly incapacitated metro system, at a time when hundreds of thousands of football supporters are expecting relative ease when travelling around to the ten different Euro 2016 venues, is a clammy, embarrassing problem.
Moves to reform French employment law more generally have sparked these fiery protests, quite literally, as burning blockades were erected in front of an oil refinery in northern France, and power outages caused by a torched electricity station occurring elsewhere. The proposed reform laws have loosened the regulations that restrict employers’ abilities to tamper with the pillars of working life; the 35-hour week, pay reductions, redundancy regulations, maternity leave; it is no wonder the reaction has been so strong.
So, even with all of this going on, away from the water and sheltered from the fire, there is a floret of optimism surrounding what is one of the most vivacious France teams in some time. French teams of the past have been built on top of stalwart defence and defensive midfield; Claude Makelele and Emmanuel Petit, Marcel Dessailly and Laurent Blanc, Frank Lebœuf and Lillian Thuram. This team isn’t so impressive defensively; no Rafael Varane, Kurt Zouma or Mamadou Sakho leaves Didier Deschamps a little bare at the back, but his attacking riches, even without the disposed-of Karim Benzema, are bountiful, almost egregiously so.
One hopes that this bounty can ease the unrest down to a simmer, if only for the sake of seeing Antoine Griezmann, Kingsley Coman, Anthony Martial and Dimitri Payet do what they so brilliantly do. Add in Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi and an energised Moussa Sissoko, and France might be the most well-armed side in the competition in terms of pure game-changers.
Olivier Giroud is in fine form for his country, and Andre-Pierre Gignac has managed, somehow, to play his way into the 23-man squad from the Mexican Liga MX. The last two tournaments to have been hosted by France have been won by them, and yet the pressure on this team seems lessened, as if the jubilance of this attack has opened up a release valve, through pure joie de vivre alone.
Of course, the fact that the French national team have jumped from scandal, to mutiny, to mutinous scandal since the 2002 World Cup makes the relatively light mood surrounding the lead up to this tournament seem lighter still.
The new labour law reforms have done more to derail (ahem) preparations than the incident involving Benzema, Mathieu Valbuena, a sex tape and an attempt at a spot of blackmail between friends. There appears to be very little chance of anything unseemly occurring inside the French camp this time around, one might cautiously state before the fact.
There is a pleasing blend of experience and freshness in this team; Patrice Evra, Hugo Lloris and Bacary Sagna have all performed well for the national team in the past, and N’Golo Kante, Coman and others can now step confidently into the international limelight for the first time.
Their group is also one of the easiest, at first glance, with Switzerland, Albania and Romania sharing it. Both the Albanians and the Romanians are likely to be highly defensive, posing little threat to a weakened French back line; subsequently, the French forwards will relish the challenge of picking both these sides apart. Switzerland are a dangerous prospect, but rumours of squad infighting have abounded, between the Swiss-born contingent and the players born elsewhere in Europe (much of them, in fact, in Albania).
Payet’s free kicks can give this tournament a sparkling garnish. Pogba will almost certainly provide one or two astonishing highlights. And it if can all translate into a cup-winning campaign, then a raucous, fizzing tonic this tournament will turn out to be.
Large portions of France are feeling soggy and blue at the moment, or are in fits and red-faced with anger, as misfortune and unrest ripple through the country. But the white light of this French attack, which will dazzle both the red and the blue, can offer some welcome relief.