The government unveiled its energy sobriety plan on Thursday, October 6, and the sports sector is affected by certain announcements. In addition to the subject of heating in gymnasiums, which will be put in frost protection mode in the event of voltage on the electricity network, the executive wants the lighting time in stadiums before or after matches to be reduced by 50% for competitions during the day, and 30% in the evening. In the hours that followed, the Professional Football League (LFP) announced that the stadiums of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs would apply this system from October 7.
Lighting, particularly in football stadiums, is a subject that is both sensitive and reveals the uses of professional sport. On July 26, before the first call for energy sobriety launched by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had already mentioned, at the microphone of France Info, the possibility of ending certain night matches. . At the time, the football world had very badly received the suggestion, which potentially upset the organization of professional football, the schedule of matches… and their value in the eyes of broadcasters.
But if the government is once again encouraging clubs to significantly reduce the duration of lighting in their stadium, it is because this parameter is an important lever for action. For example, Ligue 1, the French first division football championship, has set brightness standards, intended to guarantee the quality of images during television broadcasts, which are far superior to “normal life”.
Six to four hours
Before Thursday’s announcements, for elite matches, LFP regulations required very powerful lighting (at least 1000 lux) and the lighting of the enclosure three hours before the start of the game. It will now be an hour and a half or two hours, depending on whether the match takes place during the day or in the evening. A time deemed necessary to allow the realization of all the media activities, as well as the tests of the refereeing tools (goal-line technology, video).
The stadium must then remain lit for the duration of the match (approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, including half-time). Until now, the lighting was also maintained for an hour and a half after the final whistle, for a total duration of more than six hours. Now, the total ignition time should be around four hours.
The lighting power, on the other hand, will remain the same. During major Champions League-type matches, to broadcast images in 4K quality, the threshold is raised to 2,300 lux. By comparison, in a street lit in the evening by a conventional street lamp, the lighting is between 20 and 70 lux.
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