French Soccer Fans… You Deserve Better

The opinion poll on the web site of France’s leading national newspaper ‘LeMonde’ (lemonde.fr) reveals the telling judgement of the French people on the outcome of last night’s nightmare in St. Denis. Over 85% of readers say that their team does not deserve to go to the World Cup finals next year.

In my lifetime France has been a beacon for great football… Euro 84… World Cup 98. France herself has experienced awful injustice as in 1982 when a horrible professional foul by West German keeper Harald Schumacher on Patrick Battiston went unpunished and effectively ended France’s World Cup dream.

It’s a nation brimming with skilful inspiring players from past and present… Platini, Zidane, Dessailly, Anelka, Ribery, Vieira, Blanc… the list is endless. Based on recent evidence if you are a fan of French football it’s fair to say that you deserve a lot better…

…better than not topping your qualifying group and suffering the indignity of requiring a last minute seeding decision from on high to assist you in your play off plight…

…better than having one of your great heroes of 1984 now placing his administrative size 12s firmly on the heads of the smaller football nations…

… and of course better than having your star player and global icon of fair play become the subject of such international disgust and ridicule following a blatant cheat to secure your World Cup berth…

Henry is no Harald Schumacher but the end result is the same for Ireland and so is the sentiment towards French football from the rest of the world. I wonder when people Google Thierry Henry in years to come will the first paragraph of the citation mirror Schumacher’s by referring to being remembered most for a shameful incident that stopped a country and a generation of players from fulfilling their World Cup destiny… A privilege that Henry has been handed once again…

Author: James Wynne is Director of Sport at Slattery Communications