Racing Club: The Fallen Giants Who Play At The 1924 Olympic Stadium
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- čas přidán 17. 04. 2022
- In a northwestern Paris suburb is a half-demolished decrepit old stadium. If you didn't know, you would never guess that it once hosted the Olympic Games. The World Cup Final. 42 French Cup finals. And legendary athletic performances from Paavo Nurmi, Eric Liddell, Harold Abrahams, and a young Brazilian footballer called Pelé. Last weekend I travelled to Colombes to experience the historic venue for myself, and watch the fallen footballing giants who still play there...
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Colombes Stadium in 2009 by Dr.Clint.Beans -
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I was expecting to see another brave display and ultimate defeat, but no, a win from one of Tim's teams. We are truly living in strange times.
Oh, Tim is just bandwagoning and supporting the team that's at the top of the Paris-area fifth-division football league.
Next thing we know he will start doing Airplane videos instead of Trains
@@SwedMsu That would be Half as Interesting, er, Wendover Productions... LOL!
@@SwedMsu Yeah, but it will probably be "Here is this unique plane, and here are the reasons why they decided to never build a second one of these"
@@ReneSchickbauer So, basically Mustard? (the channel, not the condiment)
I grew up in Colombes, and still remember the 80's revival. My 12 years old brother refused to take 10 years old me to the final game. He was in the junior club and would go with the rest of the amateurs. At the time I thought he didn't care to be burdened with his little sister in front of his pals, but retrospectively, his claim about security, and more precisely lack thereof, were realistic.
There are also an Olympic swimming pool and a ice skating place (where Phillipe Candeloro discovered skating) in the "parc de l'île Marante". It was nice to have access to olympic facilities for free in primary and middle school; and to go to a parc immortalised by writer Maupassant and the Impressionists so close to my social project (it is not a pretty town, so we took pride wherever we could).
Several members of the chilean band Quilapayún lived in Colombes as refugee after 1973 and they were very popular in the whole area. Many people my generation remember "El Pueblo unido" but my favourite song of theirs is "elegia Al Che Guevara".
It’s rare that a comment genuinely adds to my experience of watching a CZcams video. Thank you!
@@shamelesshussy thank you so much, I did hesitate to post my rambling. It was a bunch of memories brought to mind by the video, I wasn't sure it'd be relevant to anyone.
The definitely do. Thanks for sharing.
@@NouriaDiallo Definitely thank you for your memories.
Tim, regarding the amateur status of the PSG players, you didn't watch the PSG reserves, you watched their amateur section. In many countries it is advised and often mandatory that when member-run non-profit football clubs have a professional section they spin it off into a limited liability company that they then own or otherwise control. This shields the amateur club from liabilities and simplifies their tax situation, the tax service starts asking difficult questions when you're raking in lots of TV and merchandise money as a non-profit.
The PSG you saw is therefore an amateur club that fields a team in the fifth tier of French football, and while they've apparently sold the professional arm to some dodgy Qataris, both teams still share - presumably through a contractual agreement - a name and a kit.
By the way, if you're interested in this sort of thing, look up what happened in recent years to Belenses in Portugal, it's a fascinating story and would make a good Tim Traveller video if you're ever in Lisbon.
Ah merci beaucoup Bertram, I was very confused, and this explains a lot! They are called "la réserve du PSG", so I guess you'd still translate it into English as "the reserves", but it's clearly a very different concept to reserve team football in the UK.
So probably not as much "the reserve players from PSG" as "the reserve _team_ connected to PSG", that is probably mainly getting their kit payed for from name royalties from the pro club?
More like minor league baseball, where players are sent to play but still get less pay than those who just fill out the bench in major teams (from what I understand, and that's not much)
@@theHalken actually there are Minor League Baseball teams with direct ties to the top level teams, and players returning from injury do sometimes play a few games with them (for the Mets one of their Single A teams (there are several leagues in Single A that differ by how long the season to play is) is in Brooklyn, then there is AA and AAA level as well. These teams do bring in fans and revenue for local towns and cities, so it’s a big deal to have one of these teams. But there are entire leagues that have no links to an MLB team (the Atlantic league is one) and it’s basically where players from college that didn’t get drafted go to try to get noticed, or work on their weaknesses because the big league teams do open up spring training as a sort of tryout for their minor league clubs.
@Mike Mainer You are right, in the US its American money that does the corruption!🤠 And in the UK, It's Russian money! 🥸Why can't the continental Europe be mor like them?🤔🧐
big thumbs up just for the quiet “reserves” every time Tim says PSG 😂
Shut up
I don't know anything about football, but Tim's here so I'm here.
same, don't know a thing about it and I couldn't care less but I *do* like these videos:)
Correct
Yup, same
well, there is a ball, you kick with your foot. That's it really. oh and Fifa scandals that will be forgotten in 2 weeks time
Ditto.
Same thing happened to Polonia Warszawa, Warsaw's oldest football club. Due to financial (among many others) problems they lost place in top league. They fell all the way down, but are slowly coming back up.
Also they pronounced racing wrong because they are french and of loow intelligent.
@@garrysekelli6776 s/loow intelligent/low intelligence
Also Bristol City, from my home town, fell from the old first division in England to the fourth in consecutive seasons. I believe they were the first ever to do so. They did go bankrupt due in part to generous long term contracts given to a number of leading players. The club had to be re-founded as a new company, I think in 1982.
@@cakemartyr5794 Ah I didn't know that. I always wondered why Bristol, a relatively huge city haven't had a top flight team for my entire life. Good to know 👍
@@lordgemini2376 City did make the playoff final about a decade ago. I'm not a fan, particularly, but I like to see Bristol's profile being raised.
Fun fact: The Olympic scenes for "Chariots of Fire" were actually filmed at Bebington Oval, on the Wirral, which apparently looked much as Colombes did in the 1920s.
This was the settimg for Escape to Victory too (although I think Belgrade or sonewhere like that substituted for Colombes stadium)
A similar story can be told for Union SG, the original big team in Brussels, who dominated the league for many years in the pre-WO II era (11 titles across 30 years is quite something). Only to later be surpassed by Daring (later RWDM) and the eventual Anderlecht as biggest and most successfull team in Brussels.
In the '60s Union started falling down the rankings and bottomed out in various divisions, only to return last year, winning the second division and finally promoting to first division again. And you'd think that's where the story ends, but at this very moment Union SG, a club with no budget to speak off, holds first place with most goals and only 6 games to go. They might very well embarrass all big clubs.
So while unlikely, it's possible for a club like Racing to one day return to glory, we just can't really predict how or when.
Ah yes I love the Union SG story! Got a couple of mates in Brussels who are big fans. Six big games coming up - I hope they do it
@@TheTimTraveller Any chance on a Union SG meet-up? ;-) (I missed the one in Urk)
Also, would "racing" not be pronounced in the English way, or have you heard otherwise? As we have a few historic clubs here in Belgium, I've wondered what the correct pronunciation would be, but taking these as English words seems to be the trend here...
@@wimwouters478 According to Wikipedia, it is pronounced [ʁasiŋ], as it would be if it were French.
I wanted to comment on RUSG, too. But although RUSG doesn't have the money a Club Brugge or Anderlecht has, their main investor, Tony Bloom (also owner of Brighton & Hove Albion) isn't exactly poor.
I'm only afraid that Union will have to leave their cosy stadium in Parc Duden with the wonderful art deco facade. There are (contested) plans for building a new stadium on the outskirts of Forest, near the Ring, but it won't quite be the same.
And the fall of Dukla Prague is even more ignominious.
As i was a Colombes resident for years (building just face to face with the stadium entrance), you can also go to the station Colombes and take a bus to get to the Stadium (much more efficient for people with wheelchair and with bunch of merchants to buy stuff like food and drink before going to the match).
I didn't knew about its past glory and thanks to you it's now quite a great souvenir for me to rethink about that stadium.
Tim becoming an expert on French old stuff that used to be cool
What luck that France has lots of that - looking forward to the next episode of that in this channel.
@@MagereHein Hein seems german to me. Are you from Germany ? As all european country you have for sure as many old site as we do.
@@tomjoad1363 Magere Hein is the Dutch term for the personification of death ("The Grim Reaper") "mager(e)" translates to thin, meager and Hein used to be a common Dutch name.
@@anthonvanderneut Thanks for for the update of my knowledge. I used to live near the flemish part of Belgium (near Kortrik) but never learned flemish nor dutch. :(
It's a very broad category, which includes monarchy, peach melba, and Gerard Depardieu.
Just a wonderful collection of music again Tim! I got Match of the Day, Chariots of Fire and Grandstand. (Yeah, I know more British TV themes than is healthy for someone who has never lived in the UK, but well...)
Don't forget International Athletics and A Question of Sport.
so many happy memories of the Grandstand theme. I would love it to come back I also used to love the theme for Ski Sunday and Wimbledon.
Another place of former sporting glory to check out in Paris is the Stade-Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, where the Tour de France finished before they moved the last stage to the Champs Elysees in 1975, meaning all of Merckx's legendary wins took place there. I cycled in to relive the glory days of my countryman, did a victory lap, and got shouted at by the mildly friendly custodian.
...also known as the 1900 Olympic Stadium! Great idea taking a cycle there, I might just try that, and find out if the custodian is still friendly
The Bauer where Red Star Paris play and you have done a great video of in the past is getting the same treatment for the Olympics this time for Football. Thanks again for your videos Tim.
Yes! Although I think I'm right in saying Bauer is just going to be used for training, rather than the Olympic tournament itself. Great that they are renovating and recycling all these old venues though
I'm intrigued by the concept of Olympic medals for Town Planning. I can only assume that they took one look at what passed for town planning in the 1960s and retired in disgust.
If you are interested in the overall topic, there is a great episode of the podcast 99% invisible (episode 471), where there talk about these forgotten Olympic disciplines. This includes a story about an "athlete" who one an Olympic medal for building an Olympic stadium - The Olympic stadium where he won the medal for building it!
Sadly the Olympics came too late for Monsieur Haussmann! He'd have won gold for sure.
As much as that would be hilarious the death of the category came much earlier than that
I think there may have been a medal for bread making in the early Olympics too.
"Milton Keynes leads coming into the home stretch, looking fresh with plenty of parking and convenient busses ... still Milton Keynes as they approach the Thatcher hurdle ... no! He stumbles into Melbourne City Centre and they are both down! Keynes is back to his feet ... he's run over by a Polish lorry in the roundabout. Oh, the humanity!"
*Men of culture know the best use of the Chariots of Fire music is the Mr. Bean segment of the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony*
But seriously though, this accordion version is genius. And it's pretty mind-blowing how it's a hundred years when the Olympics returns to Paris. But still a cool achievement to say your venue has hosted an Olympic event twice on top of a World Cup. Fun fact, the first place to host both a Winter and a Summer Olympic sport was in fact NOT Beijing but rather, Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Karuizawa hosted equestrian for Tokyo 1964 and curling for Nagano 1998.
Finn here, thoroughly impressed by your pronounciation of Paavo Nurmi. Best I think I've ever heard from an Englishman. I've always liked how you pay attention to your pronounciations, no matter the language :)
It's actually pretty easy if people bother to spend less than a minute looking up the Wikipedia page (which probably has the IPA pronounciation) or Google Translate (which will just say it for you).
Is there actually a way how to pronounce Paavo Nurmi wrongly? There are way more difficult Finnish names.
Chariots of Fire played on an Accordion. Tim you surpassed yourself once again!
I love it when Tim gives an insight into the cultural identity of a city whether that’s a sports club, some sort of architectural style or just a hidden secret that no one barely knows. This is why I love this channel so much. Keep it up Tim and would love to visit you one day in Paris (always been a fan from the start)!
Well, me needing an english man to learn about the fantastic history of a local team just near my place, and hyping me up for their matches, that tells me à lot a lot about my love for football 😅
Excellent video as Always, thanks again!
I had a crazy dream that I was in one of your videos Tim, now I'm nervous when you upload. 😂
Great video as always Mr. Traveller.
This is my sort of team, the underdogs who deserve a following.
Great video
I love the accordion rendition of Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire theme! 🔥
I'm sad when the episode is over. Thanks for your great content!
The old TCA cricket ground, on the Queens Domain in Hobart, is just like this. Once host to Don Bradman and thousands of passionate fans, it's now little more than a changeroom and a rusting grandstand, and is home to the North Hobart Demons cricket team. Faded glory indeed.. 👍🏏🇦🇺
Making my second ever CZcams comment to say that this was a trip down memory lane, because in January 2013 I made a pilgrimage (as part of a very slow sort of 'collecting' of men's World Cup final venues) to Colombes. The city was under a thick blanket of snow and I got off the train at the other station and thus had to walk along the dual carriageway to get there, but when I arrived I found an open gate and managed to walk up to the side of the pitch (which had rugby posts up, so it was a nice surprise to find from this video that they do still play football there too). Back then the 'other' main stand across from where you sat was still there, so I was able to stand there for a few minutes and really get a sense of what the place must have looked like back when Mussolini's boys were winning their second World Cup.
I very much hope the remodelling, including anything they do after the 2024 Olympics, leaves the one remaining original stand where it is rather than knocking it down and rebuilding in the name of modernisation.
Ah, and incidentally if you ever get to Montevideo and visit the Estadio Centenario (which you must if you love old stadia), you'll find that one of the stands there is named the Tribuna Colombes, in honour of the fact that Uruguay won their first (as they have it) world championship there - the 1924 Olympic Football Tournament. Down here in South America (I live in Argentina) a lap of victory by a team who've just won a trophy is still called a 'vuelta olímpica', and it's said that this is because the Uruguayan team that won that 1924 tournament were the first winners to run one, egged on by the crowd who wanted to applaud the great football they'd just watched.
Uruguay has this Stadium as an icon, as their Gold medal win in 1924 is dubbed as a World Cup title (it didn't exist back then). One of the stands in the Estadio Nacional in Montevideo is called... you guessed it "Colombes".
Loving the muzak version of Chariots of Fire in the background
This variante of Chariots of Fire you had chosen is brilliant. I love it.
Always a highlight of my day when I see a Tim traveler video in my feed. This one didn’t disappoint!
Great stuff again Tim. Love the music: MoTD, Chariots of Fire, Grandstand (particularly nimble piano work).
I believe yet another once great French football team was Stade Français, now famous for rugby, with the football team in the lower leagues. A had an uncle, Jean Gutewiez, who played for them in the sixties, in which he was a top scorer at one point.
What is that Grandstand music ? It osudns like a TV game of the v70's or 80's. Is Keith Manfield a musician that did hundreds of jingle hoping some would be pick up by producers to enlight thier TV shows and games?
@@tomjoad1363 The end music of this video is the Grandstand theme from the 1970s until its cancellation. Yes, Keith Mansfield probably knocked it out in an afternoon on a commission from the BBC. He and his fellow composers at KPM (Keith Prowse Music) were prolific at writing Library Music. Many a TV theme came off a KPM LP record. He also wrote the BBC Wimbledon theme (Light and Tuneful).
@@nowster Thank you ! I have discovered this melody on Spotify and was wondering which award ceremony it could have been taken from. Well I was kinda wrong.
Have those been edited on LP and available to the public?
@@nowster czcams.com/video/caDlnvqZCh0/video.html
This song by The Motors has a riff that's really like the Grandstand music. See what you think
I also heard A Question Of Sport in there. Nice!
I so appreciated the piano Grandstand theme! 💕
Interesting that there is a football Club in Argentina, called, wait for it... Racing. That also uses the same Jersey colours/colors. Nice story as usual and loved Pelé reference mentioned. That guy has more goals that everyone else and he never played on an european team. Bravo!!
Is there a link between the two clubs? Or could it be that they once where one club.
@@sirBrouwerThe club from Argentina was founded in 1903,according to Wikipedia. Now if there is a relation, I don't know, but it would be a great story.
He was a great player, but he's second overall (behind Ronaldo) and 10th in international goals.
wow what a cool video!! as a River Plate & Newcastle supporter, I was pleasantly surprised to find out the greats Francescoli and Ginola have both turned out for the club. One of those lines on Wikipedia usually glossed over.. Fantastic
Tim, I'm an American who doesn't follow real football, only the USA version :). Yet, you still get me excited with stories like this one of a once-mighty club that has fallen on hard times, yet keeps hoping to recover some of its' former glory.
7:42 oh god this mans broke out with the Laudrup!!!!! brilliant brilliant
"Vangelis - Chariots Of Fire" on accordion. 🤣
This is amazing!
What’s even better is that there were medals for town planning! As a planner myself, I wonder what they had to do! 😆
My landlord is a town planner so I will tell him about this one. 😀
I can't believe you were there, I'm living right next door at the moment!
Lovley video Tim, it was also the filming location for the match footage for the film escape to victory. Sad to see that so much of the stadium has been swept away, from the film footage, you get a great sense of how it used to be.
I nearly mentioned Escape To Victory! But although the scene was supposed to be at Colombes, apparently it was actually filmed in Hungary
They chose MTK Budapest stadium because it didn't have floodlights, colombes did which Wouldn't look right for the 1940s filming
The Oasis track took me a second. Nice touch!
And about fallen giants in Italy we can talk about Casale, which is the first Italian team that defeated an English professional side, Reading FC was their victim; which won a title and now plays in Serie D; or Pro Vercelli, which won 7 titles (albeit the last one in 1922), and now plays in the Italian third tier.
You've got that parisian "ein" at the end of "bonjour" NAILED!
EDIT: Oasis backing track!? One of my faves, en plus!
Haha :D I have to remember NOT to do it for my non-Paris videos
@@TheTimTraveller I wonder how Marcel (the star of 'The Two-Headed Monster Vehicle of Montech') would pronounce it with his wonderful, southern patois.
i love your videos and brilliant choise of subjects and the genuine enthousiasem you have for this club and the old stadium... your work is realy special
Tim, thank you for your videos. They helped me once to go through a very hard part of my life and they are helping me again. They calm my mind and keep me hoping for better times. Thank you very much.
Happy 250K, Tim! Congratulations! And thanks for the history lesson. I'm not a football fan, but I am a history fan, and I really enjoyed this. Bravo and thanks as always.
Congratulations on getting to the 1/4 million mark in subscriber terms. Well done Tim!
After Goussainville, here is another city 15min from where I live where I learn something so incredible that I knew nothing about
Your grasp of classic theme tunes never ceases to amaze and delight!
A lovely tune, ... Vangelis unplugged.
Brilliant video Tim, really enjoyed it! And the music as usual was excellent!
Once again, Tim has tricked me to enjoy sports, and sports history! :))
Thanks for the video. I was there in December 2010 in heavy snow to watch Racing Metro 92 play Saracens and again over Easter 2015 again to watch Racing Metro 92 play Saracens. At that time when Rugby was played there were temporary stands and Portaloos which gave the impression of a very run down stadium.
I always love your football video's and it's nice to see the right team win for a change ;)
Wonderful video.
Thanks Tim.
Amazing video, Tim! So cool that you got to go to a game. And glad for Racing, I hope they get promoted!
I often enjoy these amateur games more than the big league games, especially when it’s a former big club that still has somewhat of a supporter base
It just feels more „honest“..
Tickets, Food and drink are usually cheap too
I love the goalscorer at 7:47 taking a quick nap 😂😂
Great video Tim. As always love your music.
LOVE the accordion rendition of the Chariots of Fire theme. When do we get the full Tim Traveller soundtrack release?
Another excellent video Tim, most informative and interesting to learn about the history of this stadium and the club. I have no real interest in football but even I cheered at the 5th goal volley! Glad to see the area has a future and long may the history continue to be written there. As always, the musical choices are spot on.
Thank you for a wonderful historical and modern reflection of this great sporting venue. Your commentary commanded my attention
from the opening moments through conclusion. Sport draws people together at both ends of the ladder. You'll never get to the top
without that first rung. And everyone at the top has to meet that first rung again...one day.
Finally a new video! Thank you!
I love how you present the story. BRAVO FANTISIMO
Congratulations on the accordion version of the Chariots Of Fire theme.
Vaguely remember the pre-Park-de-Prince days when it was home to the national rugby team. Great video, as always, Tim.
It hurts to see the stadia in Rio, not even a decade old after the Olympics, fall to such disrepair as the Stade Yves-du-Manoir half a century after their Olympics. Glad to see the venue getting a facelift for 2024 though, at least that's putting existing infrastructure to good use.
Your channel is amazing. You deserve a lot more subscribers.
Tim your videos are always superb. We agate the same love of quirk and faded glory, but - unlike me - you make something productive out of it. Keep up the great work!
Love this channel cheers Tim
This video is a very informative showcase of regular Parisien life and you've done a banging good job of making me want to support Racing! You could do a whole series on French and/or Parisien sport teams! Especially with the Olympics coming in the next few years.
This is definitely the funniest channel on CZcams. Thank you very much for a video about this team, and thank you also for NOT translating everything from English to American, as so many CZcamsrs seem to do.
When I was young, I decided to pick one team from every league I could think of, and my team in France was Racing Club. Because I'm cursed, the team quickly vanished. I decided then, at the same time, to both follow Marseille, and detest PSG.
EDIT: I loved the Parisy-sounding version of Chariots of Fire.
I love these videos about old buildings and their legacies and stories
Loving the match of the day music
Very informative, well done Tim.
At least it is being rebuilt, even if for hockey. Once again, awesome from Tim!
More underdogs to cheer for! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Really enjoying the arrangements in the background music :)
Jouer «Chariots of Fire» façon muzette! Bravo, Tim! Il n'y a que toi pour y penser!
Interesting, there's also a Racing Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and they use the exact same colors... That can't just be a coincidence 🤔
Directly inspired...the Buenos Aires version has had much better luck over the years!
Love it! See, its videos like this that makes me want to try going to Paris again, last time was abysmal though!
Thanks for this video Tim. My French grandfather played for RCF at rugby (fly half or inside centre) in the mid to late 1920s, sometimes alongside Yves du Manoir (after whom the stadium is named) who was tragically killed in an air crash. They were of a similar age (my grandfather was born Sept 1904). As a young boy in the 60s and 70s I was taken several times to Stade Colombes by my grandfather to watch rugby games there. By then my grandparents had moved to a town in Yvelines called Le Vésinet (2 stops from St Germain en Laye on the RER Ligne A) and well remember the commotion caused in the 70s by the merger of Paris FC and St Germain which led to PSG
You scored big with this video. Thanks!
Especially loving the background music in this video!
Good day for a video release. I'm in Gueux! The track is awesome. And I've seen a rugby match at Colombes. When Racing used to play there. Good history. Let me know if you come to Munich.
Y'know, I really dislike football and how people in my country obsess over it even though we've not won a world cup medal in about 30 years, yet here I am watching a video of some british bloke commentating over a French minor league game because of the historical significance of the stadium. Well played, Tim.
Love the vids Tim
As an Englishman who used to live in Paris (and briefly in Clichy) played hockey out there (although for Racing’s biggest rivals - Stade Français) the fact the stadium’s skeleton is being used for this pushes all the right buttons for me. Thanks for the video Tim!
One of your quirky best Tim
merci beaucoup pour ce reportage. 👌
You're simply flaming marvellous
Great video as always Tim! Were you playing the Grandstand theme at the end of the video?
I am glad it's being kept alive such historic places should be protected so the magic and the stories can be passed on to future generations.
As always, the music choices were perfect!
Pitch looks magnificent and what a wonderful story
Great story and very nicely done! loved it.
Loved hearing the Grandstand theme tune again!
Allways love the background music!
The Stadium was still bigger than that some years ago, when Racing came back in the rugby elite top 14. There was like 15,000 places. They since destroyed the other grandstand that was still there. There has been some great elite rugby matchs in this stadium in the 2010s. Racing, that is also an historic rugby club, and the first champion of France of rugby history in 1892 (they won it also in the 1950s and in 1990) have had the same kind of history in rugby towards Stade Français, that was rebuilt at the end of the 90s, and became for 15 years the only professional rugby club in Paris. Nevertheless Racing managed, thanks to Lorenzetti, to become back the best rugby club of Paris in the last decade, and was champion of France in 2016.
Great commentary and music choices 🙂
Very nice. Even the weather was behaving itself.