A beautiful but, at the same time, very scary image above, created by a friend (Dave Flitcroft) who was imagining typical scenes confronting firefighters and terrified residents in the Gironde area of SW France – just to the West of the city of Bordeaux.
As a major environmental and social disaster, the wildfires in various parts of France and Spain (and now Crete) have drawn worldwide attention.
Obviously, from my own point of view and where I live in France, it is the ones threatening Bordeaux that have my full attention at the moment.
I have to say that I have been quite touched by the number of people who have posted comments on The Mag asking if I am safe and wishing me well. I really do appreciate it. This article is partly my way of thanking you all for your concern.
In actual fact, the fires are a long way from me – about 150km to be precise. So, that would be the equivalent, from Newcastle, of fires in Leeds.
We have felt the effects, though, when the wind came directly from the West a couple of days ago and bathed our region in a haze of strong smelling smoke. You can almost smell it in the picture below!
Photo by Wor Lass via The Mag
Compared to the usual…
Photo by Wor Lass via The Mag
However, this is a football site after all so my second reason for writing the article was to satisfy my curiosity in wondering whether this catastrophe could have any sort of direct effect on the forthcoming season in France.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from the coastal area to the South and West of Bordeaux and buildings and facilities worth millions of Euros have been razed to the ground. Could this have implications for the professional teams?
The top two levels of the French football “pyramid” system is the Ligue de Football Professionnel, made up of the two professional national divisions of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. At level 3 is the semi-professional Ligue 3. Below that are the non professional Championnats – National 1 and National 2 which are divided into 4 and 11 parallel regional divisions, respectively.
When I looked at whereabouts in France the professional teams are, I was stunned, but then it does bear out what I have found locally and related in previous articles on The Mag.
The Map below shows the location of all professional teams for the upcoming season,2026/27. As you can see, there is a very clear, clean patch right over my home area in the South West, almost delineating the Nouvelle Aquitaine region.
Credit: maps.com
This is a large area of the country containing some sizeable towns such as Biarritz, Bayonne, Angouleme, Cognac, Saintes and, the daddy of them all, Bordeaux – yet not one professional footy club. Bizarre!
Or maybe not. Bordeaux is a case apart and I have written about the downfall of “Les Girondists” previously on The Mag. (Andy Carroll to the rescue?) but what about all the other towns?
The second map supplies the answer to that one.
Credit: hub.net
This one shows the location of all rugby Union clubs in the Six national divisions of France and that same clean semi circle over Nouvelle Aquitaine is smothered by club crests. Fair enough, not all of these are full time professionals but within the region are many of the most successful clubs from the top two divisions: Bayonne, La Rochelle, Bordeaux Bègles, Pau, Agen, Biarritz, Dax, Montaubin and Angouleme.
I knew the oval ball held sway in these parts but even I hadn’t realised just what an iron grip it had.
To bring in an element of topicality to conclude, I was also stunned by the sudden departure of Eddie Howe from our club. I have always admired his whole approach and ethos and I’m sorry to see him go.
Combined with the loss of top Newcastle United players and the wall of silence now surrounding our owners and their future intentions, it has really unsettled the fanbase and caused massive concern.
However, when I see appeals on line for emergency supplies for people whose homes have been burnt out, for temporary accommodation to be offered and for farmers and building contractors to bring earth moving and water carrying equipment to the fire zone and when I hear about the deaths of brave fire fighters, whether in France or Crete, it makes me realise that there are worse things in life than losing your football manager.