Description
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling.
Its predecessor, L'Auto, was a general sports paper that also covered auto racing which was gaining popularity at the turn of the twentieth century.
L'Auto originated the Tour de France road cycling stage race in 1903 as a circulation booster. The race leader's yellow jersey (French: maillot jaune) was instituted in 1919, probably to reflect the distinctive yellow newsprint on which L'Auto was published. The competition that would eventually become the UEFA Champions League was also the brainchild of a L'Équipe journalist, Gabriel Hanot.
