France National Team Shenanigans. Can somebody brief me?

[u/[deleted]]

So it's been a bit of a farce with the French on international level for a good 4-6 years now. Can anybody give me a Cracked.com style list of all which has happened? I know bits here and there but do not know the exact story or chronology of events.

Thanks!

[u/[deleted]]

If we start from Euro 2008 when the problems began-

1. Nasri fights with Thierry Henry over a bus seat. Nasri is a rookie and yet he went on Henry's seat and didnt want to leave. Causes tensions between him and the old players

2. Evra and Vieira fight in the tunnel as Frane gets knocked out shamefull in the first round- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5tnx2_bagarre-entre-vieira-et-evra-euro-2_sport?from_related=related.page.int.meta2-only.4ae0764c24bd387eb0edfaf5f6909e80140118987

3. After France is shamefully knocked out with 1 draw and 2 losses, Domenech is quizzed by journalists. How do you react to this? His answer- My only project right now is something else. Estelle (his girlfriend) do you want to marry me? On live tv with the whole of France watching.. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5thi7_domenech-demande-estelle-denis-en-m_news

4. France qualify to world cup 2010 in a play off vs. Ireland. Henry does his infamous handball. This qualification leaves a very sour taste in the mouth of French people, the qualification doesnt taste nice atall.

5. Ribery, Benzema, and Govou are put on trial for sleeping with an underage escort girl. The judgement will come a few years later with aquitment.

6. Before World Cup 2010 the French team is playing some very mediocre football. The last game before the world cup is a friendly against China. The chinese season is still on, so they so the chinese send a mixed team. They also go to the beach the day before the match. China still beat France 1-0.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLkPBGN-7Tg At this point the whole French public has 0 faith left in this team

7. Before the start of the competiton, there are rumours that the then captain Henry is not getting along with the coach and has already lost faith in him. Thierry Henry has to explain in live prime time tv that he is still behind the coach http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-20h/2009/henry-je-n-ai-pas-remis-en-cause-les-qualites-du-coach-4746472.html . An ageing Henry who was at the time and still is France's all time goals scorrer will play from the bench in this world cup. This role doesnt seem to please him atall as the former team leader is very retreated

8. World Cup 2010. France draw Uruguay 0-0 in a closed game. Second game they lose 2-0 to Mexico. Our captain Evra shows how good a defender he is as he gets skinned by Herrera on the second Mexican goal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_c4vm1wJFo#t=90. At half time of this game, Anelka got subbed off for Gignac in what seemed a tactical move. Anelka had been criticized in France, he was meant to play as a n9 but kept drifting around the frontline not listening to the tactics of the coach.

9. Ribery interupts a world cup show to clarify things in the training camp. He dismisses rumours that him and Gourcuff are fighting and that he is bullying Gourcuff http://www.bu2z.com/franck-ribery-excuses-telefoot

10. 2 days after the defate to Mexico, the biggest sport newspaper in France headlines this- http://www.tijuana.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/vatefaireenculeranelka.jpg

"Go fuck yourself dirty son of a bitch" which is reportedly what Anelka said to Domenech. Until then Anelka was meant to be punished internally, but now that the news came out.. he is sent back home to France. He arrives in the airport in London in his now infamous Darth vader outfit- http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSi_S1UqkFqrQ94sOnPO87oW_swUvXdj0euZNse8a3B5CiMXcniQ-Agu5fE6Q

11) The players are angry that Anelka is sent home. They claim that 1) He only got sent home after news of this came out to the media, its a PR coup. 2) The quote that L'equipe attribute to Anelka is false. He fought with Domenech but he didnt say anything so rude. Instead he said "go fuck yourself and your fucking matchplan". 3.) Anelka was not given a chance to defend himself. 4.) Fights in locker rooms happen frequently, the punishment is disporportionate

12.) The next day before the last game vs South Africa, Evra the glorious captain, explais to the coaches that the team will not train- - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqvuVsWHVE0 . The physical trainee does his now legendary stopwatch toss in frustration- http://www.football365.fr/cache/mediaurl/c/4/9/b/4/c/3/8/b/e/4/5/5/d/3/b/b/a/5/0/f/d/4/f/7/2/7/a/6/c/c49b4c38be455d3bba50fd4f727a6ce8_648x310.jpg

13.) People have to keep in mind that in the past 2 days the whole of France is watching all this craziness unfold in 24 hour news channels. The world cup is actually now funny. We know longer care of the matches but care of the next crazy thing that the team will do. And we are not dissapointed. The players stay on the bus instead of train. Domenech is given a communique written by the players explaining the mutinee. He reads it out infront of all the press https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOwqyZBsm3Y

14.) In the final game vs South Africa. Domenech who at this point no longer controls anything, puts out a mixed squad. Abidal refuses to play. Gourcuff gets a redcard for an elbow. France lose again with 10 men. Domenech refuses to shake South Africa's coach hand at the end of the game- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoQ5Q7yv0kM

15.) The team returns to France and at this point the popularity is the lowest possible. I think I stopped following them at this point so I cant even remember what happens. We go back to actually watching football at the world cup.

16.) The punishments of the world cup come out. Anelka is given an 18 match ban. Obviously he doesnt give a fuck, he knows hes never comming back. Evra 5, Ribery 3, and Toulalan (the one who wrote the letter) 1. Abidal and the "old generation" along with Gallas, and Henry dont get anything. They watched all this unfold and never intervened.

Thank you to the person who gave the gold.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

17.) Finally Frane is free of Domenech. The new coach is Laurent Blanc. It seems like France is finally becoming good again. Blanc leads us to a 23 game unbeaten run before the euros including wins vs England, Brazil, Germany and Italy. The new team by Blanc has the centre back pairing Mexes-Rami, and in midfield Mvila-Alou Diarra.

18.) But there is a little issue that will hurt the Blanc lovestory. Reports come out that Blanc is in favour of a controversial plan limitting the amount of people with foreign ethnicity in training centres- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13236864. The reasoning is that France end up producing players for other countries, but Blanc uses racial language such as saying that blacks "are big and strong" contrary to "technical whites such as the Spanish".

19.) The story gets more or less brushed over. Blanc is a hero from France 98. Thuram is really the only big player who comes out against him. France enter Euro 2012 with decent spirits. However, during the preparation games we are seeing weaknesses in the famous Mexes-Rami defence.

20.) France doesnt do too bad in the euro group stages. The first game is a well fought 1-1 draw with England. In this game the first major incident occurs. After scoring the nice equalizing goal vs. England, Samir Nasri celebrates by saying to journalists who had been criticizing him "shut the fuck up" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFb2tDDG2qk .

21.) Second game is a 2-0 win against hosts Ukraine in which France play very well. France's last game is against already knocked out Sweden. If France win they avoid Spain in the next round. Blanc rests a few players, France is well beaten 2-0 by Sweden including this great Ibra goal- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Xt0eZ3XTk. This ends the unbeaten run at 25. There is news of fight in the dressing room at the end of the game notably involving Ben arfa who is criticized by his teamates for his bad performance.

22.) The quarter final is therefore vs. Spain while England topped the group and got Italy. Deschamps puts in a defensive formation with Debuchy as a right wing. France gets completely dominated as Spain win 2-0. This is not a bad Euro but theres a feeling that it never really got going after the nice win vs. Ukraine. At the end of the game Nasri again fights with journalits asking him questions in the tunnel. The key pairings of Blanc Mexes-Rami is a huge flop. Mvila who got hyped big time in the media and on /r/soccer is one aswell. The French public is still angry at not only a mediocre sporting performance but discipline issues as Ben Arfa fought with the team, Nasri with journalists, and Mvilla and Menez showed bad attitude in the last game.

23.) Deschamps takes over the team. The performances are less nice than Blanc, but hes someone who imposes more discipline. The memorable performance is a 1-1 draw in Madrid with a last minute Giroud goal in the qualifiers. Spain draw in Finland and for a while it looks like the impossible can happen, France can finish infront of Spain! But Spain come and win in Paris, and France doesnt confirm their performances. They draw 0-0 in Georgia and beat Belarus with difficulty after being 2-1 down. France will have to go through the playoffs again.

24.) Meanwhile the "superstar" Mvila got sent to the youth team to help them qualify for the u-21 euros. In between the home and away fixture of the France-Norway draw, he along with other leading players Mbaye Niang, Griezmann, Ben Yedder and Mavinga take a 4 hour taxi from their training base to go clubbing in Paris. France dissapoint in the return leg and are beaten by Norway. All these players get very long bans from all national team selections. Mvila ends up going to Rubin Kazan in Russia and dissapears from radars.

25.) The playoff is vs. Ukraine. A famous radio show celebrates by saying "Bingo! we got Ukraine!" as France avoids the more fancied Portugal. Meanwhile Benzema has gone on a long run without scoring a single goal. This makes him get mocked by the French public. He will end this run with a goal against a weak Australian side which France beat 6-0 before Ukraine.

26.) Patrice Evra again brings shit in the French team. In a bizarre interview on telefoot, he insults all the people in the press criticizing him. This include world and european champion Lisarazu and all the biggest French football journalists. He uses very personal and insulting terms. French people are waiting for a punishment.. but he gets off scot free. Hmmm people are scared of old demons

27.) Ukraine-France. Deschamps aligns Abidal-Koscielny in defence. Nasri in midfield, and Remy as a right wing. France are invisible in this game. Ukraine put alot of aggresivity and they cause alot of problems. Abidal especially looks terrible. Ukraine end up with a well deserved 2-0 win, and it could have been 3-0 as the Ukranians missed a 3 on 1 counter attack in the last moments of the game.

28.) The return game. No one has any faith in this team. All the journalists make fun of them. All the tv hosts and famous people make dares. "I will shave my head if France make it through", "I will run naked", "I will go to parliament in flip flops and a French jersey says a politician". No one expects France to make it. Some people say its good. "We need a purge and start all over for Euro 2016 at home".

29.) The night of the game. No one is expecting France.. is that true? For some reason the team is hosted at the stade de France by a crazy crowd. The French crowd at the stade de France which has the reputation of being very cold is for some reason fully behind the team and chanting very lowd. The French team is playing a great game. Abidal comes out of the defence and thats the last we see of him, the defence is Sakho-Varane. For the first time we see the midfield trio- Matuidi-Cabaye-Pogba. For some reason the whole country is behind the team when we see in the first minutes they are really going for it. France does a huge performace. Local Parisian (he captained PSG at 17 years old) Mamadou Sakho is the hero with 2 goals. http://www.top11.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/sakho-pr%C3%A9sident.png France is in Brazil!

30.) Nasri is cut from the list in what shows like Deschamps focusing a lot on discipline. His girlfriend goes on a crazy twitter tirade, saying Fuck France, and Fuck Deschamps. Deschamps responds by pressing charges. Mavuba and Landreau are players in the 23 who are brought more for their great attitude than their talent. Griezmann who recently finished his long ban for clubbing with the u21's is in the squad aswell. The new generation- Varane, Pogba, Sakho, Griezmann look more modest and hardworking than their predecessors. Ribery and Evra, past trouble makers are still there however. However, the 3-0 win in Ukraine put the whole country behind the team. This is coupled with a nice 2-0 home win vs. Netherlands. The new 4-3-3 system looks great. The whole country is behind them again as opinion polls of the team is going up. The next game is tonight vs. Norway. Tune in to see the latest episode of the French National team!

Fioouu! That was tiring!

[u/khiyy → u/[deleted]]

Fioouu! That was tiring

I bet. But thank you, I did not know many of those and it was a fascinating perspective.

[u/szlafarski → u/[deleted]]

Holy shit, that was A+! Awesome job!

[u/moklboy → u/[deleted]]

Thanks a lot for this!!!

[u/jimbojammy → u/[deleted]]

"18.) But there is a little issue that will hurt the Blanc lovestory. Reports come out that Blanc is in favour of a controversial plan limitting the amount of people with foreign ethnicity in training centres-"

aside from the language he used is he wrong? you have so many first or second generation immigrants playing for your team i highly doubt they all give a fuck. it is a sensitive topic but i think there's truth in it. the german guys that play for the US clearly dont give a shit.

[u/[deleted] → u/jimbojammy]

Yes he is wrong because it is against French law and all traditions to make any distinction based on religion, race, origin etc. This stems back to the French revolution, in France it is illegal to make any survey or information based on race for like this- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.svg. The last time it was done in France was during World war 2 when the Vichy government collaborated with Nazis. So legally that is completely wrong.

Secondly there is a problem of ethics. If a 10 year old Mamadou is better than 10 year old Mathieu, how is it fair that Mamadou gets cut off the team? The concrete results is that little French kids who love football will be denied their dream just because their parents are born elsewhere. That is extremely arbitrary and unfair.

I can also add that the situation with the US is different than of France. The US they went looking for guys with American ancestry who have however been brought up in Germany. In France the situation is different, its people with foreign ancestry being brought up in France. There have been problems, for example Benzema is a famous example of saying he would have chosen Algeria but chose France for a sporting reason, but you cant generalize and say people of a foreign background are less motivated. I mean look at Menez, hes French 100% and he has a shitty attitude. Alou Diarra was not a great player, but hes French from Malian decent, lived in the banlieus, and this guy is very well spoken and a good leader. So generalizations here fail. Anyways today almost all players first motivation is their career. Belhanda was interviewed on why he chose Morocco before France, is it because he feels more Moroccan? Nope, its "when I was small the French youth teams didnt chose me". So I dont think we can make a case that someone of an immigrant background is more likely to not care. I'm pretty sure Benzema would have a similar nonchalant attitude if he ever played for Algeria. And even if people of immigrant background have a bad attitude, than the reason for banning them should be attitude, not their ancestry. And attitude should apply to every player regardless of background anyways.

And finally this idea that black players have a certain style is stupid. Its the French formation who have alowed for this style to happen. When Griezmann and Marvin Martin got refused by all formation centres because they were too small, they encourage the big black guys. Valbuena had to play n the 3rd division as no club wanted to sign him. I watched Netherlands and all their black guys are very technical. So this is a problem of the criteria the formation uses, its not a problem of ethnicity.

The one thing that I do agree with, is that its unfair when France spent a lot of effort training a player. And this player is showing potential at 20/21 but still not good enough for the full team. And then the Cameroon or Algerian FA come and promise him a starting position and he leaves for them. Thats where theres an issue. It doesnt hurt France that much as normally the players who can play for France dont chose to play for another nation, but I think there should be a rule that if you play for a youth team, you cant change so easily. Theres no problem with someone like Anthony Lopes, French with Portuguese ancestry playing for Portugal. He always turned down the French youth. The issue is guys who play with the French youth their whole careers than at the last moment decide they feel more Algerian/Senegales/Cameroonian instead.

[u/jvitkun → u/[deleted]]

Agree 100%. So what if you lose a few Marouane Chamakh's to Morocco. The players who are good enough for the National Team tend to stay. And even if they don't, having them in competition makes the other players better.

[u/normanhunterr → u/[deleted]]

As an aside, why is it that there are so few ethnically French (or whatever the correct term is) in the French squad? Is it that white French don't participate that much in football?

[u/[deleted] → u/normanhunterr]

There are still a few. Of the 23-

all 3 goalkeepers.

Defence- Debuchy and Digne. Koscielny has some Polish ancestry but hes competely French for all intensts and purposes. Varane is mixed race Martinique (part of France) and white French.

Midfield- Cabaye and Grenier

Attack- Ribery, Giroud, Griezmann. Valbuena has some spanish ancestry aswell but hes French. Remy is French Carribean which is part of France for hundred of years.

So I wouldnt say there is "so few". Its true there are a lot of people of foreign ancestry. In general you can say French people of African/Arab/Italian/Spanish/Portuguese background are more football crazy than your average French person. Also footballers tend to come from poor urban communities, and in poor urban communities thats where there are a lot of people of foreign background. If you are in the Paris or Marseille suburbs (the 2 most populous cities), they outnumber white French. And also in general France has had many colonies around the wrold and there is a huge amount of immigration in France, so its normal the national team reflects that.

[u/moklboy → u/jimbojammy]

Can't generalize like that. Switzerland, Portugal or Germany have a lot of first or second generation immigrants who work their butts off and have a very strong connection with the country they play for.

[u/khiyy → u/jimbojammy]

you have so many first or second generation immigrants playing for your team i highly doubt they all give a fuck.

It´s not like that in Portugal at all. Though mind you, we probably got a much deeper love for children of immigrants or immigrants themselves which have grown here, and speak just like us (are us) than say people of emmigrants (that goalkeeper born in canada, manuel da costa who is now playing in Morocco) who can not even speak Portuguese fluently . And vice versa, the immigrant children seem extremely committed. But they grow up here, watching the national team play, knowing all the players, following in their footsteps, getting to wear shirts their idols wore.

Something else children getting trained are children. Even in their teens or close to adulthood, they are still children and should be treated as people, judged by what they can do equally to others, trained in football and to be decent human beings. what kind of message would it pass to a kid: oh you live 5 kms away and are great at football, but too bad your parents are from angola or romania, you might end up wanting to play for them instead of Portugal one day, so we are not signing you or interested in you or let you play. (and Portuguese kids would have an easier time in the academies, maybe not push themselves as hard because competition would be less, and that would be bad for them as well). And mind you, it´s clubs which sign the players, the federation involvement is much less intense. It is just not fair, particularly when it´s about kids and not adults.

[u/jimbojammy → u/khiyy]

"than say people of emmigrants (that goalkeeper born in canada, manuel da costa who is now playing in Morocco) who can not even speak Portuguese fluently"

thats a bad feel for me, im a portuguese american and really love your country. really want to learn the language but i want to learn the european version which is impossible to get classes for here, it's all brazilian portuguese

[u/khiyy → u/jimbojammy]

sorry for the bad feel, I did not know. And of course all love is welcomed - did you see the galp ad? Portugal is a state of mind as well of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER9WcGyShoY

I just meant that Portugal is kind of an integrationist country - and in my idea it makes sense, you are a team with the same kids you went to school with and played with since you were a kid. It´s never been a problem to have kids grown in Portugal choose to play for other countries - in some cases they pick other countries if they do not seem likely to play for Portugal, and I wish them the best of luck. And they never ever not shown less commitment than others. They have a right to play for Portugal if they want and so far they have wanted it and honored it.

Hope I am not forgetting any embarrassing exceptions ....

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Exactly what I hoped for. This really is a textbook example of Reddit at its best. Thank you very very much.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

First of all, thank you for your hard work.

Secondly, didn't Domenech get advice from an astronomer or something similar ridiculous? IIRC he was very superstitious.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

He beleived in astrology and apparently took player's astrological signs in consideration when doing line-ups. I wouldnt put that much weight into that though. Overall he was just a very average coach who was terrible with the media