THE HUGE PRESENCE OF AFRICAN MIGRANT PLAYERS IN ‘LES BLEUS’ OF FRANCE IN 2018 WORLD CUP: A COROLLARY TO THE POLICY OF ASSIMILATION AND ASSOCIATION

Abstract

A corollary to the 1884/1885 Berlin Conference was the colonisation and partition of the African continent. Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Germany became beneficiaries following the partition, though Germany later lost her territories as sanctioned by the Versailles Treaty of 1919. The French introduced the policies of assimilation and association in colonies administered by them. This study links the huge presence of African players to the aforementioned colonial policies. There are some works averring the nexus between the French colonial policies and the presence of African migrant players in the the senior men’s national French football team nicknamed ‘Les Bleus.’ These works do not bring to the fore the rate (percentage) of African players in the various matches played by France in the 2018 World Cup fiesta, hence this study. The sources of this study are mainly extracted from the internet combined with utilisation of textbooks. Findings reveal that as a result of French colonial policies of assimilation and association, a lot of Africans became French nationals. It is also observed that there was racial discrimination in France, but it seemed not to be so intense as French Football authorities didn’t buy into the discrimination narrative and went for the best set of legs. 15 out of the 23 players of Les Bleus in the 2018 World Cup were Africans. This study recommends that African players should be given a specific quota in Les Bleus to douse tension of physical xenophobic attack on Africans by the French natives.