One of the most notorious tales to ever emerge from the recent World Cup Of Soccer in South Africa, or from any World Cup ever played, was the implosion and subsequent strike of the French soccer team, a few days before their final group game against the host nation, which they lost anyway. Originally, it was thought that Les Blues’ and Chelsea striker, Nicolas Anelka, was mostly to blame, after his verbal tirade against coach Raymond Domenech,led to his dismissal from the team, and the aforementioned strike by the rest of the roster against the coach a few days after that, in sympathy with their team-mate.
A much different interpretation of the France fiasco has emerged from a source within the team, who would know exactly what was going on. According to ESPNsoccernet, former France team doctor Jean-Pierre Paclet has removed the entire blame from Anelka, and placed some of it squarely on the shoulders of Arsenal’s Samir Nasri. Paclet contends that even though Nasri was not on the World Cup roster, “………the 23 year-old was a source of disquiet which dates back further than June after upsetting captain Patrice Evra and senior professionals Thierry Henry, William Gallas, and former Marseille team-mate Franck Ribery.”
Now that the suspensions have been handed down, with Anelka’s being the most severe at 18 games, it may be time for the French Football Federation to thoroughly review their research, even if they stand by their disciplinary moves. No aspect of this soccer shocker should be swept under the carpet, if the federation is sincere about bringing justice to what became a huge national embarrassment. Nobody outside of the team will likely dispute the suspensions because of the strike, but at least the fans of the team and the rest of the football world, deserve to know the entire story, not just the widely publicized aspects of it.
In extracts from his book, “L’Implosion”, Paclet was quoted in reference to Nasri: “ Here was a kid with a dozen caps looking down on players with a hundred. Scarcely believable. His behaviour gets on the nerves of almost everybody and he has the gift of really annoying Henry, Gallas, and Patrice Evra. Most of all, the relationship between Nasri and Ribery was very tense, from the time they were together at Marseille. They were more like kids in a playground rather than professionals on a pitch. Ribery would cause general laughter if, say, he put salt in my coffee. If he did it to Nasri, there would be no sense of humour from him.”
Paclet also dishes out some of the responsibility for the Anelka outburst, with the man on the receiving end of the tirade, coach Raymond Domenech, shedding some new light on their discord. “ When Domenech went to see Anelka at Chelsea last season, Anelka warned him, let him know that there was no point taking him to South Africa if he was to play him in a position he didn’t like………The problem with the French team wasn’t Anelka. You have to understand he is loved within the squad, immensely popular, even if he’s introverted.”
It seems to me that French Football Federation, in conducting it’s investigation into the soccer version of a soap opera in South Africa, missed the message of the doctor, and put a Band-Aid on the wound, but failed to address the infection. If the team doctor is correct in his assessment of Les Blues’ and on Anelka’s importance to the squad, then the Federation fell flat on their fannies in trying to fix the fracture.