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
In Irish sport we’re punching above our weight… Let’s not get greedy!
So this weekend we host the French soccer team and the Wallabies in Croker in less than 24 hours… Our sporting cup runneth over…
The success of Irish rugby is undoubtedly the sporting story of the year and the Irish soccer team are back to the brink of World Cup qualification. It’s where we as a sporting nation feel we belong…
One thing we’re inclined to forget is that (as a “friend” said about me on my wedding day) we’re punching well above our weight.
Lets have a look… a country with the population of Greater Manchester has beaten all comers in European rugby – a Grand Slam, Heineken Cup and Magners League. That’s picking from a tiny pool of top class players by comparison with other rugby nations.
At the top of the decade, beating England at Lansdowne to stop them winning a Grand Slam in 2001 was enough to satisfy our appetite for ‘success’. Now we expect to beat the auld enemy every time and be doing so on our way to our own Grand Slam!
Despite falling short of expectations for almost a decade in International football, the arrival of Mr Trapattoni has reignited our sense of entitlement to a place at the World Cup table of nations! Sure enough, here we are on the brink once again. Has anyone looked at the team sheet? Three world class players? Four maybe?
If we learned anything from our recent collective ego trip (the artist formerly known as the Celtic Tiger) it’s that we as a nation should keep our greed in check. That goes for International sporting success as well…
Let’s look for honesty of effort and commitment… Let’s look for sporting moments that will last a lifetime… Let’s support our teams every step of the way… Let’s want to be the best and let’s want Ireland to win… but let’s not be greedy people!
Author: James Wynne is Director of Sport at Slattery Communications