French World Cup crisis turns into affair of state

PARIS // France's World Cup squad flew home to Paris yesterday like a group of unruly pupils returning to face the music after an overseas school trip marred by acts of serious misbehaviour. And the first Frenchman to hear the players' side of the story upon their return was the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who received the French striker Thierry Henry at the Elysée within an hour of the plane landing at Le Bourget airport outside the capital.

An official car collected Henry and delivered him directly to the palace, arriving by a rear entrance to avoid cameras. The meeting lasted at least an hour after which the player left with equal discretion - and no immediate statement. Henry's role as spokesman for the embattled group was a reflection of his seniority within the squad. The Barcelona and former Arsenal striker also personifies both the glory, and the more recent disgrace, of the national side.

Revered by countless fans throughout the world for his achievements at club and international level, Henry made his 123rd and, most assume, final appearance in French colours in the team's last game of the tournament against the South African hosts. He has a French record haul of 51 goals for his country. Yet Henry's image had already been damaged by the unseen, unpunished handball that helped France draw with the Republic of Ireland to qualify unconvincingly for South Africa 2010.

For the French media, from the sporting daily L'Equipe to the conservative L'Express, the president's involvement signified the upgrading of the debacle of Les Bleus in the World Cup from football crisis to affair of state. But Mr Sarkozy's earlier decision to summon ministers to discuss the implications of early French elimination from the event, and the preceding controversy, has attracted some criticism.

A Green member of the EU parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit said it was the "height of absurdity" for the president to waste time on sorting out the game's national ruling body, the French Football Federation. He said the president's conduct reduced him to the level of Nicolas Anelka, the player expelled from the World Cup squad after verbally abusing the coach Raymond Domenech. There was also dispute over who initiated the Elysée meeting. Some reports said Mr Sarkozy had asked Henry to attend, cancelling a reception for 120 NGO officials to make way for him, but the palace insisted that the player requested the audience.

Only a handful of supporters turned out at Le Bourget, France's oldest airport but now used mainly for business flights and the Paris Air Show, for the low-key arrival of the team's plane just before noon. Camera crews were kept at the airport perimeter. Even before leaving South Africa, the players and Domenech, whose tactics and leadership have also been roundly condemned in France, had been left in no doubt of the frosty welcome awaiting them.

Failure to progress beyond the group stage, only four years after Les Bleus were beaten World Cup finalists and 12 years after they won the trophy in glorious fashion on home soil, was bad enough. What was considered a great deal worse is the degeneration of France's 2010 World Cup adventure into a display of sulking indiscipline, culminating in open defiance of the authority of both Domenech and the federation.

Individual players, including Patrice Evra, who lost his captaincy before the final game, for which he was also dropped from the team, and Florent Malouda have said they wish to seek the forgiveness of the French public for their behaviour. They have also promised explanations in the coming days of the behind-the-scenes events that led to their astonishing decision to refuse to train only two days before that decisive match against the host nation.

For now, the country seems in little mood to listen. L'Equipe greeted France's elimination with a cartoon showing South Africa bidding "good riddance" to the departing French plane. Roselyne Bachelot, the sports minister, described the players' revolt, staged as an act of solidarity with Anelka, as a "moral disaster" and said Les Bleus had forfeited their status as idols for a generation of children.

Speaking in the French parliament on Wednesday, she remained on the offensive, describing an entourage in which "immature bullies dictated to frightened kids, their coach helpless and without authority and the French Football Federation at bay". A few hours after the minister addressed the French national assembly, riot police confronted more than 200 supporters of Algeria involved in disturbances near the Charléty stadium in central Paris, where their own country's defeat by the US and consequent elimination from the tournament, had been shown on a giant screen. Cars were set on fire and shop windows smashed and police had to force back a mob trying to approach a building housing American students at the Cité international university.

@Email:crandall@thenational.ae