Soccer fans in France and elsewhere wondered, what kind of discipline would Les Blues face when the dust had settled, and the implosion of the national football team of the country, had been fairly analyzed. Now that the autopsy report, figuratively speaking, has been examined, the new coach, Laurent Blanc has decided to utilize collective punishment on the team, as a method of sending out a message of strong disapproval, pertaining to the team’s strike against former coach Raymond Domenech,during the World Cup group games in South Africa last month. The suspending of striker Niclas Anelka, after he ripped into his coach during the halftime of a tournament game, in which France lost to Mexico 2-0, set the stage for the strike, which occurred before a practice the next day, after the Chelsea player had been sent home.
The punishment of the entire team, in which all 23 World Cup players will be dropped for Laurent Blanc’s first game, a friendly against Norway on August 11 in Oslo, seems to be a reasonable way of getting a message across, about standards of behavior that are expected for athletes who are representing a country. According to the ESPN.com story, it is also possible that Blanc might drop some players from Les Blues first home game since the teams debacle. That will occur on September 3 at Stade de France, in a 2012 European Championship qualifier against Belarus. The France Football Federation has given its endorsement to Blanc to employ this tactic, as a means of punishing the players from the World Cup squad. It is indeed a wise strategy by all concerned. It allows the coach to put his imprint on the team, and do so in a game where a loss for France will not have dire consequences for them, but will sufficiently embarrass the group, into not ever trying something like this again. Once it’s over, with further similar moves possible for the Belarus game, then the team and Blanc can focus on what lies ahead of them, and coming together again as a unit. Perhaps they might become a more solid outfit, as a result of having gone through all of this trouble as a group.
Another step that was necessary in restoring the integrity of the national team, was for a player to publicly admit that there tactic was the entirely the wrong one,and sound apologetic, in restoring the faith of the public in the players, both as athletes, and as representatives of the country. The goalkeeper for Les Blues, Hugo Lloris, in the ESPN.com article, said that the team was “totally stupid” for going on strike, and that he is desperate to “restore the image” of the team, which has obviously been shattered, after the fiasco in South Africa. “Going on strike was the decision of a group that felt isolated, that felt no one had protected it, and that wanted to get a message across. We went way too far. It was a clumsy decision, a big mistake. It was totally stupid. We acted more like a team in the bus than on the pitch. We all want to restore the image of Les Blues. I’m not asking for us to win everything, just that we all make an effort, that we give everything. We need to get back to basics, respect for the jersey, for ourselves, our teammates,and the institution that is the France team.”
Most sports fans are forgiving towards athletes who make mistakes, provided they acknowledge their wrongdoing, and apologize for their transgression. It will be fascinating to see how long it takes the football fans of France, to warm up to Les Blues. One thing we know about sports enthusiasts, is that nothing remedies their periodic unhappiness, like winning does. Victory on the pitch for France, will create an expedited forgiveness in the minds of the French football fans. That is almost universal with sports, wherever games are played on the planet. When it comes to athletics and teams, winning seems to remedy just about everything.