A priori, football and mining have nothing to do with each other. And yet… Matches in Lens are much more than football, it is also a region which celebrates its glorious past. Two local children produced this report for “Envoyé Spécial” which tells the love story between a club and its land.
It is on the day of Saint Barbara, the patroness of miners, that the journalists from “Envoyé Spécial” arrive in the former mining basin of Pas-de-Calais. Here, it’s a date that matters almost as much as Christmas. Every year, on December 4, the Racing Club de Lens releases a new jersey in homage to the “black faces”. And even at 90 euros, fans are snapping it up. At 8 a.m., in -2° weather, there are already 500 of them waiting in front of the store…
For three years, the players of the football club have achieved exploits. So much good news in a territory which is becoming depopulated (Lens has lost 10,000 inhabitants in fifty years) and has never really recovered from the closure of the mines in the 1970s.
“Bollaert”, much more than a stadium
In the heyday, in 1933, Lens was home to the largest mining company in the country, with 17,000 employees. The miners were then requisitioned to build, under the direction of chief engineer Félix Bollaert, a stadium for the workers. “At least during this time, they will not strike,” said the employers.
This is how the famous Bollaert stadium was created, and football took off here. And Lens, once proud of its miners, is today… of its footballers.
A report by Arnaud Muller, Edmond Muller, Marguerite Teulet and Steven Kali, broadcast in “Envoyéspecial” on December 14, 2023.
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