{"id":28388,"date":"2023-09-07T14:34:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T12:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=27159"},"modified":"2023-09-07T16:11:37","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:11:37","slug":"when-vichy-france-banned-rugby","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/when-vichy-france-banned-rugby\/","title":{"rendered":"When Vichy France banned rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 8 September, the 2023 rugby union World Cup kicks off in Paris in front of a global audience of millions. Revisit the hidden history of one of French rugby’s most shameful episodes, in an archive article from Professor Tony Collins <\/p>

By Professor Tony Collins\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 07 September 2023 at 12:34 PM<\/p>

\n\n

Marshal Philippe P\u00e9tain, head of state of the collaborationist French government in Vichy<\/a>, issued a decree on the morning of 19 December 1941 that was unique in the history of world sport.<\/p>\n

With a stroke of his pen, he announced that the sport of rugby league, or le rugby \u00e0 treize<\/em> as it is known in France, was banned. Its playing was to cease, its offices closed and its assets confiscated by the government. Overnight, a sport with thousands of players and hundreds of clubs was wiped out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why did Vichy France ban rugby league?<\/h2>\n

The cause of this extraordinary decree lay in the sporting and social upheavals that gripped France in the 1930s, but its origins can be traced back to the origins of French rugby in the late 19th century. Rugby<\/a> had deep roots in France. Taken up by Anglophile middle-class young men in the 1880s, it rapidly became popular among the French elite. The first French club, Racing Club de France, was formed in Paris in 1882. Baron de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics<\/a>, was a strong supporter of the game and its amateur ethos. He refereed the first French rugby championship final in 1892. By the early 1900s, the game had begun to spread around the small towns and villages of southern France, attracting working-class players and spectators.<\/p>\n

After the First World War, rugby\u2019s popularity meant that it became the focus for intense local rivalries. The French championship became dominated by small town clubs, such as Quillan in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Bankrolled by local \u201cnotables\u201d, these clubs ignored the game\u2019s amateur rules in the rush to sign the best players. As the competition between clubs grew fiercer, so did the way the game was played. In southern France, the sport became known as \u201crugby de muerte\u201d, because of the violence that was commonplace in championship matches.<\/p>\n