PARIS, Jan 10 — France’s World Cup squad will be based in Boston, the French Football Federation (FFF) announced yesterday. 

The two-time World Cup winners will train at Babson College, a private business school located “about thirty minutes from downtown Boston where they will be staying,” the FFF said.

The name of the hotel was not specified, but according to a federation source, the team staff was looking for a hotel that was not too large to rent out, but large enough to accommodate a delegation of about sixty people and set up dedicated rooms for medical treatment, the gym, and video sessions.

Boston is about 300km from New York/New Jersey, where the French team will face Senegal on June 16, and 500km from Philadelphia where they will play an intercontinental playoff team Iraq, Bolivia, or Suriname on June 22.

Kylian Mbappe’s teammates will play their third group stage match against Erling Haaland’s Norway on June 26 in Boston.

Coach Didier Deschamps is reported to be pleased to be playing in this northeastern region of the United States, where the French team will avoid long journeys and extreme heat, at least for the group stage. — AFP