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The French "national" sport is football (soccer). The most-watched sports in France are football (soccer), basketball, rugby union, cycling, sailing and tennis.

Sport is encouraged in school, and local sports clubs receive financial support from the local governments.

The national stadium is the Stade de France.

Contents 1 Football 2 Basketball 3 Rugby union 4 Rugby league 5 Tennis 6 Cycling 7 Sailing 8 Pétanque 9 Parkour 10 Table football 10.1 External links

See also Football in France

It is the most popular sport in France with 2,146,752 licensed players (2005 statistics). The Ligue 1, the top national club competition is the biggest sport league in the country with an average attendance of 21,576 spectators per game for 380 games in the 2005/2006 season. Football in France is governed by the national body French Football Federation (FFF). The FFF organizes both the men's and women's national teams. France hosted the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which the national football team won.

Basketball is also a popular team sport with 447,942 licensed players (2005 statistics)

See also Rugby union in France

Rugby union was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents. While football is definitely the most popular sport, rugby union is especially popular around Toulouse, the French Basque country, and Languedoc. Elite French clubs participate in the domestic club competition - the Top 14. Clubs also compete in the European knock-out competition, the Heineken Cup.It is the fourth french team sport with 235,675 licensed players (2005).

The national side competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and are the current champions. France has been to every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987, and has been a runner-up on two occasions. France will be hosting the next World Cup, the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

See also Rugby league in France

Rugby league (rugby à 13 or jeu à 13) has been played in France since the 1930s. As with rugby union, the heartland of the game is the south of the country.

Tennis is the second french sport for the number of licensed players with 1,054,513 licensed tennis players in France (2005). France holds the tennis Grand Slam tournament Roland Garros.

France holds the annual cycling race Tour de France. The winner of the previous day's race wears a yellow jersy with red and blue for third and second place respectively.

Professional sailing in France is centred on singlehanded/shorthanded ocean racing with the pinnacle of this branch of the sport being the Vendee Globe singlehanded around the world race which starts every 4 years from the French Atlantic coast. Other significant events include the Solitaire du Figaro, Mini Transat 6.50, Tour de France a Voile and Route de Rhum transatlantic race. France has been a regular competitor in the Americas Cup since the 1970s.

The most played sport in France is Pétanque^{[citation needed]}. Pétanque is mostly played in the South of France. Pétanque is not considered as a sport by many northern Frenchmen though the international federation is recognized by the IOC. [1] [2].

The social form of the sport of Pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France^{[citation needed]}.

Professional players play the very competitive form of Pétanque which is called Pétanque Sport, under precise rules. The competitive form is played by about 480,000 persons licenced with the Federation Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP). The FFPJP is the 4th largest sports féderation in France.

Created in France, Parkour ("art du déplacement") is a physical activity that is very difficult to categorize. It is definitely not an extreme sport, but an art that resembles martial arts. However, most traceurs are content to simply put parkour in its own category: "parkour is parkour".

The most characteristic aspect of parkour is efficiency. The basic meaning of this is that a traceur must not merely move as fast as they can, but move in a way that is the least energy-consuming and simultaneously the most direct. In addition, since parkour's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last), efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short-term or long-term.

According to founder David Belle, the spirit of parkour is guided in part by the notions of "escape" and "reach", that is, the idea of using physical agility and quick thinking to get out of difficult situations, and to be able to go anywhere that one desires.

Table football (babyfoot) is a very popular pastime in bars and in homes in France, and the French are the predominant winners of worldwide table football competitions.

• fifteen most popular sports in France (In French)