Editing French Paintball Federation (section)

=== Fédération de Paintball Sportif ===

The federation dates its establishment as the Fédération de Paintball Sportif to March 1996. In 2003, ''Le Parisien'' also dated the formation of the FPS to 1996 and credited it with helping to organise paintball competition at national and regional levels. The record for the present association in France's National Register of Associations gives a creation date of 22 March 1999 and a ''Journal officiel'' publication date of 10 April 1999.[1][2][4]

Regional leagues helped deliver national competition. In June 2003, the Ligue de Picardie organised national championship matches at Arsy, in the Oise. In 2006, Vichy's municipal journal listed the FPS as organiser of the national championship at the Isle de Beauregard.[4][5]

The FPS sought ministerial approval (''agrément'') as a sports federation. The sports ministry refused the application, and on 13 April 2005 the Conseil d'État dismissed the federation's challenge to that decision. The court upheld the ministry's assessment that paintball was primarily recreational for the purposes of the legislation then in force.[6]

The FPS internal regulations adopted at an extraordinary general meeting on 22 June 2013 set out its club affiliation, regional league representation and licensing arrangements. Reporting on the 2015 French championship described a system in which regional leagues ran regional competitions and the FPS managed the national competition calendar. Teams could qualify through regional rounds for the three-player and five-player semi-automatic formats.[7][8]