France vs France

The poor French do not seem to be getting things right lately. The latest in this drama is that FIFA has warned France that if the Government, Sarkozy interfere in the functioning of the French Football Federation they will have to ban France. But this intereference is already underway. Sarkozy cancelled a planned meeting with NGOs (much to their annoyance - is a football team more important then Civil rights!!) to meet Thierry Henry on his return from the dubious South Africa outing. A drubbing of this nature does no good to the fragile French ego, though its true that the English not going beyond the round of 16 is a small consolation. The last world cup Zizu rammed into the Italian abuser, the French lost but they left the World Cup with their heads high. In the 2006 European Championships Coach Dumb-e-neck after their terrible exit was seen in tears in a post match televised conference proposing marriage to his girlfriend!! And in this World Cup you see this coach with designer glasses being chased, abused by his own players!! But a peek into recent history is even more enlightening. The French Extreme Right leader, Le Pen commented on the 1998 FIFA world cup winning team saying that the Black, Blanc, Beur (Black, White, Arab) was not sufficiently French!! meaning white french. In 2005, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut caused a controversy by remarking to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite its earlier slogan, "the French national team is in fact black-black-black," adding "France is made fun of all around Europe because of that." One can only wonder what comments are making the air waves in France. Unfortunately it does not have the accessible British Tabloid press or else we would have had some real good mudslinging!!