It is not yet Châteauroux de Janeiro, but the Indre wants to put the means to make the departmental sports plain of Châteauroux a benchmark for “beach” sports. To this end, investments will be made to improve existing structures. And the Departmental Council relies on a brand new festival, “Festi’Beach 36”.
The French Beach-Soccer team in a friendly match
Another way to attract attention is to bring in high-level teams. On May 21 at 6 p.m. and May 22 at 2 p.m., the French Beach-Soccer team will play two friendly matches against Switzerland, at the departmental sports plain. Free entry. To attend the matches, however, you must have a ticket, which can be booked on the Ligue Centre-Val de Loire football website. The sandy ground has stands. It can accommodate just over 1,200 people.
From July 14 to 17, the National Beach Soccer finals will also take place, an interregional challenge.
– Xavier Ponroy
A month dedicated to sand sports
In addition, the Departmental Council will launch on June 7 a festival dedicated to the discovery of different sand practices. Until July 3, beach soccer, beach hand, beach rugby, beach tennis, beach volleyball and beach basketball will be honoured. With regional matches, days dedicated to schoolchildren (1,700 students have already registered), a concert, entertainment… The whole program can be found on the departmental council’s website.
More than 2 million euros of investments
So many meetings with the ambition of demonstrating that Châteauroux can become an essential place for sand sports in France. Because in Indre, we don’t have the sea, but we have ideas, explains the president of the Departmental Council, Marc Fleuret: “In a rural area like ours, you shouldn’t do small things that others do. We must do on a large scale what is not done elsewhere. So, thinking a little bit, these niches that are the practice on sand were interesting because there was no central room around this practice.“
For this, the department will invest: approximately 2.4 million euros to redevelop the sandy area of the sports plain. The ground will be covered, and a stand added, in particular. With a long-term dream: that Châteauroux can become a kind of “Clairefontaine du beach”.
And even if it may seem surprising for beach sports, it’s good the geographical location of Indre which can work in its favour. “Often, the beach is practiced by the sea. We are in the center, so it can facilitate teams that participate in tournaments or competitions. We exploit this side a lot“ underlines the Vice-President for Sports, Florence Petitpez.