Félix Lévitan
Félix Lévitan | |
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Légion d'honneur :
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Félix Lévitan (12 October 1911 in Paris – 18 February 2007 in Cannes), was a sports journalist and the third organiser of the Tour de France a role he shared for much of the time with Jacques Goddet. Lévitan is credited with looking after the financial side of the Tour while Goddet concentrated on the sporting aspect, but in the end Lévitan was fired while Goddet simply retired.
Background
Félix Lévitan was born in the 13th arrondissement of
The racing inspired Lévitan to become a journalist. It was 1928 and he was 17. He started at the
The drive for cash
Before long Lévitan became co-organiser. He began a drive to recruit as many sponsors as he could, sometimes accepting prizes in kind if he could not get cash. 1976 first prize included a seaside apartment given by the businessman Guy Merlin, sometimes with extra money but not always.
In 1988 Pedro Delgado of Spain won not only an apartment but a car, an "objet d'art" and only then cash: €82,000.[1] Lévitan had already had to defend himself against charges that the Tour was drowning in bad taste and that it ought to be taken over by the state to save it.[2] In 1981 Lévitan called journalists to open the books. He said not only would the multitude of small sponsors continue but that they would increase. In a speech lasting half an hour, he ran through them one by one, saying that the Tour cost "not a centime" in taxes. The implication was that taxpayers would foot the bill if the state took over.[2]
Lévitan introduced the finish of the Tour at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in 1975. It had previously been at the Parc des Princes and the Piste Municipale.
The Tour of America
Lévitan continued to look for sponsors and saw a chance to attract money from the
Lévitan had been a favourite with Émilien Amaury, who now owned not just Parisien Libéré but L'Équipe as well. But when he died, his son Philippe, bitter over illegal inheritance arrangements that his father had tried to make, took a less charitable view of those his father had appointed.[4] On 17 March 1987 Lévitan was called to a meeting in the board room in which the Tour's first organiser, Henri Desgrange had first had the suggested to him the words "Tour de France." A complicated financial discussion ensued. At stake was the losses entailed by the Tour of America. The claim was that it had been cross-financed by the Tour de France. Lévitan insisted he was innocent but the lock to his office was changed and he arrived at work 17 March 1987, to find his job was over.
He went to live in his vacation house by the
Change of administration
Lévitan was himself 76 and Jacques Goddet 80. With age and with the changing of the guard at L'Équipe and the Tour de France, Goddet retired the following year. The pair were replaced for a year by a cognac salesman called Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet, who in turn was replaced by
On being appointed, he immediately got rid of Lévitan's many small sponsors. He said:
- "My first preoccupation has been to restore the Tour's sporting credibility. We have simplified the Tour, which had become incomprehensible to the public, and cut the trophies from 12 to six, with just four classifications: the yellow jersey, the winner of the stage, the polka dot jersey for the best climber and the green jersey for the points competition. Cutting the number of partenaires has increased their visibility, which means we can charge them higher prices.
- "We wanted to offer the sort of prizes offered in the greatest sports events in the world, like the Roland Garros tennistournament."
Honours
Lévitan founded and was first president of the Union Syndicale des Journalistes Sportifs de France (1957–1965), then president of the
The legacy
Apart from the fact that he saw the Tour through some of its trickiest financial times, the legacy that remains from the Lévitan days is the polka dot jersey worn by the leader of the mountains classification. Lévitan chose the design because it had appealed to him when he saw it as a teenager at the Vélodrome d'Hiver. The finish on the Champs-Élysées will also be a memorial.