FIFA World Cup 2010 news; French camp problems creating headlines
World cup in South Africa has come up with some astonishing stories. Starting with, players not being able to concentrate due to the noisy Vuvuzelas or the empty seats in the stands whose tickets were not sold. The world cup has it all but the biggest off the pitch story so far has to be the chaos in the French team camp. The French coach Raymond Domenech who has been under the hammer even before the world cup, after choosing his squad, had a spat with striker Anelka. The argument leaked out to the media, and French football Federation decided to send home the troublesome striker. The rest of the squad refused to train in protest of the decision, while things on the pitch are no more appeasing. After drawing their opening game with Uruguay, France suffered a shock 2-0 defeat at the hands of Mexico. They are on the verge of repeating their 2002 world cup debacle of going out of the world cup, without even scoring a single goal.
A member of French coaching staff decided to walk away from the camp, while Jean-Louis who is the team director chose to resign. Louis said that he is absolutely sickened and disgusted by what is going on in the team.
Team coach, Raymond Domenech, read out a statement from the players which said all the players in the squad declare opposition to the decision by the French Football Federation to send home Anelka.
The statement released by the players continued to say that they regret the incident which took place at the mid way break in the match against Mexico. The rest of the team is upset even more about a leak of information from within the team. It should have only remained within the group. This is very common in a high level team, and at the request of the team the player in question decided to have a talk, but his request was ignored.
The players went on to say that the French Football Federation has never tried to protect the players. They took the decision to send home Anelka without consulting the rest of the squad, and the decision was made purely on what was portrayed by the press. Thus, the players have decided not to train to register their disapproval of the incidents.
The players added that it was purely out of respect for the fans that had come to witness the training, that they went out and met their followers, and the fans offered their full support to the team.
The French Squad, in a unanimous statement, stated that they know what their responsibilities are as ambassadors of the country. However, they will not tolerate the unjust treatment being shown by the Federation. Players insist that they will fulfil their duties with utter most sincerity in Tuesday’s match, and will do everything they can to once again take French team to where it belongs.
Just a day after Anelka was sent home, “Les Bleus” Captain Patrice Evra was involved in a heated argument with the fitness coach Robert Duverne. Evra was understandably outraged that someone from within the camp, had leaked the Anelka-Domenech story to L'Equipe, where the striker said some nasty things to the coach.
It is believed that the reason for Evra’s argument was to find out who the mole in the locker room was.
On Sunday when the French team arrived for training, Evra confronted the fitness coach Duverne. Team manager Domenech stepped in to calm things down, but soon Duverne was seen storming away and threw away his team badge. The Captain then handed a letter to the press manager and the Coach read it out for the media. Rest as they say is history, but well history may yet repeat itself if France do not manage to score in their final game.
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