Paul Desbaillets is quite passionate about soccer. And that die hard passion was quite evident during a recent phone interview to promote his new program The 1st Half, which airs every Friday night at 6 p.m. on TSN 690, as well on audio live stream via iHeartRadio.ca, the iHeartRadio Canada app and TSN.ca.
“The sport of soccer is growing everywhere. It brings together many sectors of the community and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. It’s where boys and girls can gather at a field and play together in a mixed game of soccer. What other sport gives you that?,” he said.
A restaurateur by trade for 18 years – he co-founded the Burgundy Lion pub in St. Henri – Paul began The 1st Half as a podcast during the COVID pandemic. “I was scrambling to find something to do during the lockdown, and creating a podcast gave me the opportunity to do something through social media and stay mentally connected,” he said. “I was conducting live conversations every single day and talked to everybody I could. Then I decided to focus the podcast on soccer and soccer culture, because those were the things that I love.”
The 1st Half debuted on TSN 690 as a weekly program back on March 1. And Paul’s choice for that title was something that was rooted in optimism. “Soccer is a game that is played in two halves. And The 1st Half has a positive, optimistic ring to it because the game is just beginning and anything is possible after that, and who knows where it will go from there? It’s almost like life in general,” he said.
Paul admits that the raison d’etre for The 1st Half was not only to cater to passionate fans of soccer, but also to people who have a passing interest in it, and point out there is an entire culture attached to the sport, which extends to food, fashion, art and music. “It’s an ecosystem sport, in which there is a sense of culture for everybody,” he said. “I don’t get into all the details that would scare the casual fan. There are plenty of soccer-related shows that dive deep into the specifics. The 1st Half explains things in a more digestible way that goes beyond the sidenotes. It gives listeners something that they can talk about at the water cooler the following day.”
This year marks an exciting time for the soccer world with fans bursting with anticipation for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, the CONMEBOL Copa America competition, the wildly increasing popularity of World Cup hero Lionel Messi (who will be in town to face CF Montreal on May 11), the 2024 Major League Soccer (MLS) and English Premier League seasons, as well as the soccer competition that will take place at this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris. Paul is looking forward to the year in soccer, and realises that soccer is enjoying an immense growth in North America (case in point, pro sports superstars LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes each have soccer franchise ownerships). However, he admits that there is more work to be done in order to have the professional aspect of soccer experience the growth on the same level as their counterparts in Europe, South America, Africa, Australia and Asia.
“It’s a gradual growth and it’s still going to take time. Even though the MLS has been around for 25 years, soccer still has a long way to go here in North America. Sometimes it can be tough to convince North American spectators that a 0-0 soccer match result is just as exciting as a 132-131 final score in the NBA,” he said. “If you’re not building a local soccer community year here year after year, season after season, you can’t get where you want to go.”
“Why do you think there are only two games being allotted to Vancouver, while the U.S. and Mexico are getting the rest of the scheduled matches for the 2026 World Cup? That’s because these two countries have the stadium space and the infrastructure to host matches of this scale,” he added.
Besides being a restaurateur and broadcaster, Paul is also involved in the Montreal soccer community, especially as the founder of the Goal Initiatives Foundation (in which the 14th edition of its Goal Soccer Festival will take place at McGill Stadium on July 28). It’s one of the three fundraisers that are being organised in conjunction with the Patrice Bernier Foundation, which includes a poker tournament on April 12, and a golf tournament in June.
“These are three exciting projects, and you don’t need a soccer IQ in order to participate,” he said. “They offer a lot of good reasons for people to get together in a fun way to have a good time and support charities that benefit kids.”
For more information, go to the1sthalf.com.
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