SPIE goes footy mad!

Cergy, 28 June 2019 – SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the fields of energy and communications, is organising its SPIE Football Cup tournament, which will be held in Toulouse on 28-30 June. This annual competition is a golden opportunity for employees united by their shared love of football to gather from every Group subsidiary across France and Europe and embodies SPIE’s values of diversity while the Women’s World Cup plays out in our backyard.

A European competition involving 400 SPIE employees

The 31st SPIE Football Cup will bring 400 Group employees together at Toulouse FC’s training facility next weekend. Players representing the Group and each of its French and European subsidiaries will be split into 32 mixed teams and then compete in seven-a-side games with nine-minute halves to lift the highly coveted “Yannic Burin des Roziers*” trophy, which has been passed on from the previous year’s winners since 1988. The current champs are SPIE ICS, the digital services subsidiary of SPIE France, which is organising the competition for 2019.

A tournament focused on enhancing diversity

Back in 1988, three friends came up with the idea of uniting their co-workers around a shared love of football. With that, the tournament was born. They hoped to go out of their way and create an inclusive, friendly environment where the rules of fair play were upheld. To mark the occasion of France hosting the Women’s World Cup, this year’s mixed tournament will particularly highlight the promotion of diversity and gender inclusivity at SPIE, including the work carried out by its So’SPIE Ladies* network. Marie-Alice Yahé, who has been the captain of the French national women’s rugby team since 2011, will also showcase gender equality and the commitment she displays as a woman by playing top-level sport. “SPIE football tournament is a step forward. We play in a mixed football team and that gives the chance to men and women to work together, to rely, to trust and learn from each other in order to reach the same goal” assume Claudia Saluzzi, represented the SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa subsidiary.

Blind football reflects SPIE’s disability policy

Talent diversity will also be highlighted by two demonstrations held by Toulouse Football Cécifoot, Toulouse’s first blind football club that is dedicated to football adapted so that visually disabled (blind or partially sighted) people can play. These will prove that even a disability cannot stop you from playing sport, and especially football. It’s an awareness-raising campaign that reflects SPIE’s disability policy and aims to integrate all employees as effectively as possible, no matter their personal circumstances.

Cédric Périer, Managing Director of SPIE ICS, confirmed that “2018 champions, SPIE ICS, are delighted to be organising the 31st SPIE Football Cup this year, an inclusive group event that typifies SPIE’s values. It is mainly the ability to push beyond your boundaries, team spirit and friendliness that invigorate everybody playing in a tournament competition that requires a will to win.”

^{(1) Managing Director of SPIE Trindel from 1993 to 2003}

^{(2) Launched in May 2015 at SPIE Group, the So’SPIE Ladies mixed network has been given three missions: to increase professional equality and make the teams more diverse, to provide better career development opportunities for women, and to make both male and female employees more aware of the issues relating to diversity.}