French Football Cup: Brittany, a land of football
This year, the Coupe de France has the feel of the Coupe de Brittany. Among the eight teams qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition, which will be played on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 February, there are three Breton clubs: Brest, Guingamp and Saint-Brieuc, a fourth division team. A treble unseen in ten years.
Even though Paris-Saint-Germain, who face Saint-Brieuc on Wednesday, are the big favourites, Breton clubs have often distinguished themselves in this competition. Performances that can be explained by the sporting culture of this land of football.
► The most sporty region in FranceWith more than 600,000 sports licenses issued in 2022, Brittany is, according to INSEE, the most sporty region in France. While on average there are 157 licenses per 1,000 inhabitants, in Brittany the figure rises to 178. While the region is known for its sailing and cycling culture, football is by far the most practiced sport with 147,000 club players. This represents almost one in twenty inhabitants.
The presence in the region of a large number of high-level clubs helps to maintain this dynamic. Unique in France, each department in the region has a professional club. Stade Rennais, for Ille et Vilaine, En Avant Guingamp for Côtes-d'Armor, FC Lorient for Morbihan and Stade Brestois for Finistère.
► A profusion of Breton clubsApart from Stade Rennais, a regular in the elite, Brest, Guingamp and Lorient have often yo-yoed between the top two divisions of French football. Consequently, the Breton football record remains modest. No Breton team has ever won the French championship. On the other hand, the Bretons have won six French Cups, with Rennes (3 times), Guingamp (2) and Lorient.
The proximity of these clubs does not fail to maintain more or less strong rivalries. Historically, the most tenacious rivalry opposes the supporters of Guingamp and Brest. The Brest supporters blame Noël Le Graët, boss of French football at the time and historic president of Guingamp, for being partly responsible for the bankruptcy of the Finistère club in 1991. The "peasants" of Guingamp, for their part, maintain a very symbolic rivalry with the "city dwellers" of Rennes, against whom they won two Coupe de France finals in 2009 and 2014.
► A favorable ecosystem for playersDespite these rivalries, Breton clubs work well together. In 2011, for example, En Avant Guingamp took over the women's team of Stade Briochin. Furthermore, transfers from one club to another are generally not too badly viewed, which allows some Breton players to shine in several clubs. This is the case, for example, of Julien Le Cardinal, born and trained in Saint-Brieuc, who briefly spent time at Guingamp and is now a starting defender at Brest.
Over the years, this fertile ecosystem has allowed several Breton players to establish themselves in Ligue 1 and sometimes in the French team: Raymond Kéruzoré, Yvon Le Roux, Paul Le Guen, Stéphane Guivarc'h or Yohann Gourcuff. More recently, thanks to the Stade Rennais training center, some Bretons have established themselves at the international level, such as Eduardo Camavinga, now in Madrid, or Désiré Doué , who has moved to PSG.
► A very strong regional attachmentIn addition to shining on a European scale, Breton players often maintain a strong attachment to their region. Christophe Kerbrat, icon of En Avant Guingamp and current defender of Stade Briochin, proudly wears the number 29 of his native Finistère on his jersey.
A link that, since the 1970s, has given rise to a "Brittany national team", bringing together the best players of Breton origin. This unofficial selection has played around ten exhibition matches throughout its history against opponents as diverse as Scotland, Corsica and Mali. Due to an overly busy international calendar and major organizational difficulties, the team has been dormant since 2013.
La Croıx
