PARIS: While most French presidents have avoided sport, Nicolas Sarkozy prides himself on televised jogging sessions, cheering the Tour de France and appearing in the stands of the Paris Saint Germain football team. Now the president is reinventing himself as a rugby fan to take maximum political advantage of the World Cup that begins in France on Friday.

As France prepares for six weeks of games that will be watched by over 4 billion people worldwide and 1.6 million visitors pump 625 million euros into the tourist industry, Mr Sarkozy is keen to be part of the rugby mania sweeping the country.

His pollsters have briefed him on the dazzling effect of France’s 1998 football World Cup win on president Jacques Chirac, who witnessed a mood of national depression turn to euphoria overnight.

Mr Sarkozy has been brushing up on rugby rules and visiting training grounds since his election. He appointed the French rugby manager, Bernard Laporte, as sports minister, persuading him to abandon his six-figure income and join the government as soon as the World Cup ends.

Predicting that France will reach at least the semi-finals, Mr Sarkozy has addressed the French team on the importance of winning the cup, joking that he will be blamed if they fail - a quip that one player complained was “perturbing”.

Despite the All Blacks being favourite, 70% of French people in a recent survey believed France could win. Around 61% believed the World Cup would give a lift to the country’s flagging economy. “You can sense the growing World Cup craze ... It’s a moment of national unity,” said the prime minister, Francois Fillon.

“The further we go in the competition, the more I’ll be in the stands, and not just as a Blues supporter,” Mr Sarkozy has said.

“We are going to see the president seize on the rugby to reaffirm his image as a sports fan,” the sports sociologist Patrick Mignon told the Guardian. “If France wins, there will be a big media operation to allow him to capitalise.” .

France is already locked into a national debate on the intellectual, philosophical and aesthetic values of a sport that is hugely important in Paris and the south of France, but has a much smaller following than football.—Dawn-Guardian News Service