What Happened to French Football?
After the disastrous campaign of the French national side in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, people are still wondering what happened to the team and can it ever be fixed. At the moment it seems that French football has hit rock bottom and it needs to seriously sort itself out. With some good guidance and luck, the team can hopefully regain its former glory and have a much better showing at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The problems started for the French team even before the 2010 finals. There was the dodgy case of Franck Ribery, the 27 year old star who was caught having s*x with an underage prostitute. It is illegal to have s*x with a prostitute under the age of 18 in France and the girl he had s*x with was 17 at the time. This caused furore in the country over his actions and he escaped jail time as all major stars do. The problem was that it showed the character of one of the top French sports stars, who was allowed to play in South Africa and the horrendous campaign seemed as karma for his and other players’ for their actions.
The other major football legend of the French team, Thiery Henry, who has just announced his retirement from international competition, was also at the centre of a major controversy in his team qualifying for the World Cup. The leading goal scorer for France has just inked a deal to move to the New York Red Bulls in the MLS in America, becoming the second international star to do so after Beckham. The controversy was that he handled the ball twice before he passed on the ball to William Gallas who scored the winning goal against Ireland. France qualified and Ireland was knocked out which led to serious protests from the Irish team but France still went through. This act was nothing like his performance at the World Cup when France finally made it to South Africa; he was entirely forgettable and did nothing only coming on twice as a substitute.
At the tournament itself, the French team were hit by infighting and a mutiny against the coach. Nicolas Anelka verbally abused the French coach Raymond Domenech and was sent home for his actions. The entire team then refused to attend training in protest of the coach’s action and the team was sent packing home the next match. Anelka explained that the problems in the team went much deeper than just those seen in South Africa. Players were having issues with one another and the entire team was not playing as a solid unit. When they met strong teams at the finals they crumbled, all the pressure and issues plaguing them must have been at the back of their minds.
Another theory has been put forward as to why the French team has experienced a decline. This new idea says that the downfall of the French team started in the 2006 World Cup final when France played Italy and eventually lost to them in penalties. The turning point of that match was when superstar Zinedine Zidane head butted Italian Materazzi after he made some comments to the Frenchman. This was also the point when the finesse, style and grandeur of French football was lost. It seems it will take a lot of effort to find those elusive elements of quality football again.
Serious steps have been taken in response to the horrible performance of the team. First of all the coach Raymond Domenech has been replaced by Laurent Blanc. Domenech was a strange coach who was known for making odd remarks to the press and just being an all round weird person. Along with his dismissal comes the news that the president of the French Football Federation, Jean Pierre Escalettes has also resigned. It seems he left his post to bring in some new person for the job to really take charge and correct the situation. We will have to see if the new coach of the team and the new president of the Football Federation can inspire the team to new heights and reclaim some of their former glory. Maybe it is also time for some new players in the team; we only need to look at the exceptional new talents that Germany found in Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller that led the team to a third place finish.
Hopefully we will see a turnaround of fortunes of the French national side. Without the likes of Henry, Anelka and others, we will maybe see a fresh, new and unified French team at the next World Cup. It is a shame when a team declines and we would all like to see its revival.
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