Radio co-production “Portraits of legendary football players”

The meeting of the Radio Commission of COPEAM on the 27th October 2006 in Porto Vecchio (France) has marked a founding stage through the launching of the first Mediterranean radio coproduction, dedicated to the theme « Portraits of Legendary footballers ». By now, a second series dedicated to the « Mythical Harbours of the Mediterranean » is soon going to be crowned. Piloted by France Bleu Frequenza Mora and based on the basket principle – according to which each radio registers its own episodes and receive in exchange the complete series realised by all the other partners – those coproductions are the result of constant exchanges, meetings and synergies developed by the professionals involved. Mainly aiming at encouraging the cooperation within the Euro-Mediterranean Region in the field of Radio – essential media notably in some Southern Region – the objective of those coproductions is to increase the understanding and reciprocal knowledge between the different countries and people of the Mediterranean space and to make the different sensitivities, know-how and techniques of the audiovisual professionals cross, while preserving the specificities of each of them. « Portraits of Legendary Footballers » The first series, which line production was taken in charge by Radio France (France Bleu Frequenza Mora, through M. Pierre MARI, President of the Radio Commission until 2008), was dedicated to national legendary footballers of the countries concerned by the project. It has represented a pioneer stage, overcome through meeting of the Radio Commission (Porto Vecchio, October 2006 ; Amman, April 2007 ; Tunis, February 2008), with 19 episodes of about 6 minutes each, made by 12 radio partners: ENRS/Algeria – ERT/Greece – ERTT/Tunisia – ERTU/Egypt – HRT/Croatia – Radio France (France Bleu Frequenza Mora and France Bleu Azur)/France - Radio RAI/Italy – SNRT/Morocco – SSR/Rumania – Radio Cotonou/Benin – RTBF/Belgium. The theme was chosen following the idea that football was one of the best shared popular activity around the world : beyond the geographical frontiers, the political conflicts or the cultural differences between the peoples, some personalities have achieved, through their talent, their sports achievements and their values, to generate respect and solidarity. The portraits of some of those men were recounted. The broadcast, sometimes several times, of the episodes in the different countries has encountered great success. EBU (European Brodacasting Union) has taken up the concept and the theme to make a European coproduction on the occasion of the EURO 2008 Football Championship.