According to the latest figures by France’s National Institute of Youth and Popular Education (INJEP), published in Filière Sport by Union Sport et Cycle, the number of affiliated sports participants in 2021 amounted to 14.4 million, representing a 14.9 percent decrease from the previous year. Multisport federations were the most heavily impacted, dropping 21.1 percent. Sports federations in France were adversely affected by the restrictions on exercise and sports related to the Covid-19 pandemic, with sports facilities remaining closed for several periods.
Football emerged once again as the No. 1 sport in France, with more than 1.9 million affiliated participants, followed by tennis with nearly 950,000 and horse riding with around 650,000. Horse riding and golf were the only federations in the Top 10 to register an increase in the number of affiliated participants in 2021 compared to 2020. Meanwhile, the share of female affiliated participants slightly dropped, from 39 percent in 2020 to 37.8 percent in 2021. Also, the decrease was sharper among female participants (-19.7 percent) than male participants (-15.3 percent). Finally, 152,000 sports clubs shut down in 2021, concurrently with the health crisis.
