"Good to Know"

There's a whole raft of matters which affect the way a sporting body (be it an association such as ACCSO, or a club such as any of our member-clubs) can operate in France. This section aims to try to provide pointers to formal bodies, to official sources of information, and to more general sources of information.

Posted 20111022: Many, many laws, decrees and regulations  which circumscribe the world of Sports have been rolled into one omnibus Code du Sport. For the curious, the cautious or the brave-hearted, a copy is available from here. Or you could put a question to ACCSO's secretary-general!

* Preparation of grounds: Here is a very useful piece of guidance from our regional ex-pro - and FC Commissioner of Grounds -  John Ayling, on preparation and upkeep of Flicx pitch areas.

If your club needs some new kit, France Cricket recommends you contact Surridge's, where all affiliated clubs benefit from a 50% reduction on the whole catalogue.  The ICC has negotiated some very good prices with a range of leading suppliers, including carpet/track suppliers, nets, etc.. For details and advice on how to place your order, please contact Eddie Cannon 

Pointers to official sites

  • FFBS (Fédération Française de Baseball, Softball): Click here. Note especially the tabs for Textes Officiels and Documentation.  You can subscribe to the Lettre d'Information which summarises changes and new regulations.      Note also the contact details for your licensing issues!! Contact Benoit RIBEIL, from here.  
  • Association Française de Cricket (aka France Cricket). New news specifically related to cricket in France (click here). 
  • Ligue d'Aquitaine de Baseball Softball et Cricket: link from here.  
  • Ligue Midi-Pyrénées de Baseball Softball et Cricket: link from here. 

Pointers to "useful" sites

  • "1901" Associations.

There are very many sites offering advice to clubs and associations, including models of constitutions, tips on fiscality, etc.  Most of them seem at first blush "free" but are not really so.   There are two government-inspired sites: service-public (from here); and le portail ministériel (from here).  And two targetted quasi-governmental sites: le guide pratique (from here); and  le portail des associations (from here).  The last site which was referenced from here no longer exists: sic transit gloria mundi! 

  • AngloInfo - a comprehensive guide, in English, to living in France, with indexes to service providers and all sorts of useful things.  Click here for Aquitaine; and here for Midi-Pyrénées coverage. 
  • The ICC Europe Newsletter is always interesting: Get the latest version, from here.
  • Cricinfo, the latest news of cricket world-wide, on-line. Click here.

Every year, the Aquitaine sports council issues very helpful guidelines on how sporting events should be managed if we get another canicule - or even if it just gets very hot, as it often does down here!  ACCSO takes this class of advice very seriously and hopes that member clubs will do likewise, especially where children are concerned, on and off the field. This segment will be updated in good time for 2012! 

And on the lighter side, there's a new cartoon aid to explaining Kwik cricket, in French (see from here).

Version date: 22 October 2011.