Clairefontaine will still have its cameras when France report on Monday, but the familiar red-carpet feel around the squad’s arrivals is set to change. Zinédine Zidane wants players free to dress as they choose, while limiting the flow of images once they reach the national team base.
The new France coach has named his first squad and will oversee a two-week camp featuring four matches across Turkey, Belgium and the Stade de France.
Quick facts
- France players are due at Clairefontaine on Monday.
- The French Football Federation will film the arrivals without media present at the site.
- Footage will be distributed to media after players have entered the complex.
- France face Turkey on 25 September and Belgium on 28 September away from home.
- Italy visit the Stade de France on 2 October, before another Belgium meeting there on 5 October.
In recent years, the walk into Clairefontaine had become a closely watched part of international windows. Photographers tracked outfits, social media dissected each look and what began as an arrival routine sometimes took on the scale of a fashion event.
Zidane insisted that no instruction had been given demanding a more restrained style. “I have not sent any message telling them to be sober,” he said after unveiling his first selection as France manager. “Everyone can arrive however they want. I am not going to change that.”
His concern is instead with the environment after the players pass through the gates. “Clairefontaine is Clairefontaine,” Zidane said, adding that there was no need for players to overdo things once they had arrived.
The former France captain said the group would be left to work privately inside the training centre. “They will come as they want, then we will be together inside,” he said. “We will try to have a little more control over the images.”
The new arrangement removes the press from the arrival area, with federation cameras recording the moment before material is made available afterwards. The players’ individual choices will remain theirs; the setting around them will be more tightly managed.
