Photo credits: COSMOS
French sport is not built on the pitch alone. It is also built through an entire ecosystem : volunteers, clubs, athletes, businesses, innovators and experts ; who support it day after day and who, over the past ten years, have managed to organise themselves into a filière, or industry cluster.
On 2 June 2026, at the Stade de France, this industry celebrated its 10th anniversary, under the high patronage of President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, in the presence of three ministers: Marina Ferrari, Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life, Serge Papin, Minister for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Trade, Craft Industries, Tourism and Purchasing Power, and Nicolas Forissier, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Attractiveness.
A clear message from the Government: the sport economy is a national priority.
Photo credits: COSMOS
A decade of structuring, in numbers
Founded in 2016 with 150 members, the Filière Sport now brings together nearly 900, including 128,000 companies, accounting for 450,000 jobs and 2.7% of France’s GDP. A trajectory that confirms, ten years on, the structuring role the sport economy has come to play within the national economic fabric.
Three sequences to take stock and look ahead
The evening was structured around three main themes:
- Developing sport for all
- Innovation in service of businesses
- Showcasing French expertise internationally
These are all areas where France Sport Expertise, through its members and its Executive President Sophie Lorant, is active on a daily basis — particularly on this last point, the export of French expertise to major international sporting events (GESI).
Photo credits: DS – Direction des Sports du MSJVA
Continuing to grow, continuing to shine
For France Sport Expertise, this celebration also marks a milestone.
The priorities ahead are clear: keep growing the industry, keep making sport a central vector of values in French society, help the industry shine well beyond France’s borders, and keep attracting major events to France.
Paris 2024 proved it to the whole world: the excellence of the French sporting ecosystem transcends participation and podiums, and unites the French people like few other things can.
The next milestones are already set: the FIFA World Cup in Morocco in 2030, the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in the French Alps, then the FIFA World Cup 2034 in Saudi Arabia. The ambition matches the scale of what lies ahead.
France Sport Expertise would like to thank Olivier Ginon and Sarah Ourahmoune, Vice-Presidents of the Filière Sport, along with everyone who has kept it thriving for the past ten years.
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