The timing is perfect.
At the start of the year, the French Land Yachting Federation had planned a campaign entitled “Conquest and reconquest” to promote this confidential sport.
“Since the health crisis, we have lost licensees and we launched this campaign to give a boost to our sport.
We had not imagined that PSG would give us a hand.
Today, Christophe Galtier is our best sales representative.
And we can never thank him enough.
»
After the release of the latter, answering a question about the movements of the PSG in a private jet, evoking with irony the possibility of doing them in a sand yacht, Christophe Roger, the president of the French sand yacht federation, is a man overwhelmed.
VIDEO.
Galtier under fire from critics after his remarks on the movements of PSG "in a sand yacht"
“It's true, the phone doesn't stop, but it won't last, so we're making the most of it.
“Questioned this Monday by Europe 1, the strong man of sand yachting had invited Christophe Galtier and his players to come and discover the discipline on the former air base BA1217, at Plessis-Pâté in Essonne.
“For insurance issues, the players will not come, but why not Christophe Galtier or Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and his management team?
We warmly invite them, to thank them for the tremendous spotlight on our discipline.
»
Message from the President of the @ffcvweb who invites the players of @PSG_inside, in particular C. #Galtier and @KMbappe, to an initiation: “land yachting, a sport that takes your hair off!”
@Europe1 #PSGJUVE pic.twitter.com/XQmHvnz8t6
— Cyrille de La Morinerie (@Morinerie) September 6, 2022
Christophe Roger looks back on his Monday day.
“We were meeting with the management committee of the federation by videoconference.
It was surprising because in the next room, my wife was watching television and I saw images of Christophe Galtier with banners talking about sand yachting.
I only had the images and not the sound.
I tell my colleagues that we are talked about on TV.
I was not aware of this story.
And that's how it all started…”
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The meeting then takes a completely different turn.
“The secretary started telling me that journalists wanted to question me.
We decided that we had to take advantage of this bargain.
While I was answering questions, we put the meeting on hold.
Then we picked it up after the interview and that's when the buzz got even bigger…”
2,000 licensees in 125 clubs
At the head of the federation since 2016, Christophe Roger manages a discipline which has 2,000 licensees for 125 clubs spread throughout the territory.
Every year, 150,000 people take part in the initiation sessions.
“This month, we are organizing the European Championships in Marck-en-Calaisis and Gravelines, in the North, specifies the manager.
We have tried to solicit the media.
But we got no feedback.
For us, it's a big party but we don't interest many people.
So imagine, that the PSG talks about us… ”
On the words themselves, Christophe Roger does not want to expand too much.
"We didn't take it badly," he said.
We have no lesson to teach anyone.
For PSG, there are constraints with matches every three days.
Me, I was rather happy to see that a personality like Christophe Galtier knows our discipline.
This is often not the case.
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The consequences for this sport remain to be seen.
“We will take stock with our clubs to find out if the requests for initiations will increase.
But we don't have too many illusions and we know that we will fall back into anonymity just as quickly and that it will only last for the duration of the buzz.
Despite everything, it’s still very nice to live…”
