Love us and save us, New Year is just around the corner, and that of course means for many the need to buy a new diary or calendar.
That's probably what the players of one amateur French football side were banking on when they decided to raise money for their indebted club.
They've come out with their own version of the popular "Dieux du Stade" (Gods of the Stadium) calendar, by baring their all for the camera in (and the joke only really works in French) what they've called "Vieux du Stade" (Oldies of the stadium).
While the professional version features six-pack torsos and rippling biceps of players from the Paris-based rugby team Stade Français, members of the Olympique Marbache-Belleville-Dieulouard club in the eastern French département of Meurthe and Moselle have posed for an edition which is...well more modest.
There's none of that semi-nude, erotic black and white photography nonsense that has been a trademark of Dieux du Stade annually since 2001.
Instead it seems to be more a case of "kit off off, tummies in and cheese".
If you want take a look at some of the photos, you can find them on the site of the regional newspaper L'Est républicain.
The whole idea of course is to raise money and in particular ensure there'll be enough cash in the pot to keep its youth teams going.
The very future of the club has been thrown into jeopardy over the past year after the local authority grant was slashed by 65 per cent.
"We need money for equipment and to pay referees," director and player Laurent Pavesi told TF1 news
"In fact we simply need money to keep the club going."
That obviously means doing just about anything - within reason - which hasn't, it has to be said, displeased the local population and in particular the women.
Even the players' wives seem to be quite happy about getting "behind" the idea as you can hear on the accompanying video, and the first run of 800 calendars at €5 a pop have all been snapped up.
And that has meant ordering another 400 from the printers.
Good for them!
Would you have the balls to do the same?
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1 comment:
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