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FIFA Says France Risk Ban From Competitions for Government Interference
France’s national team risks being suspended from international competitions if the French government is deemed to be interfering with the country’s soccer federation, FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter said.
“If it cannot be solved by consultation then the only thing we have is to suspend the federation,” he said at a press conference in Johannesburg. “This is a clear message.”
Jean-Pierre Escalettes, president of the French Football Federation, resigned yesterday after the team was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup, a sporting setback compounded by a players strike and unsporting behaviour from the coach.
French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, who counts sports within her portfolio, said in an interview on RTL radio last week that Escalettes’ resignation was “unavoidable.” President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement last week that the government wants to review how the country’s sports federations are managed.
After those comments, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke warned that football federations are “autonomous” and the sport’s governing body would intervene if there was any “political meddling.”
Blatter said today that FIFA would take action even if the decisions were made “at a presidential level.”
FIFA temporarily suspended Iraq in 2008 after the government imposed its choice as head of the country’s football federation.
A spokeswoman for Bachelot said she had no comment. There was no answer at the FFF’s press office.
Live Television
The French players refused to train after striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home June 20 for insulting coach Raymond Domenech at halftime of a 2-0 defeat to Mexico. The scene of the players staying on the team bus while captain Patrice Evra went to tell Domenech of their decision not to train, and then almost coming to blows with the team’s physical trainer, was carried live on several French television stations.
At the end of the final game against South Africa, Domenech refused to shake hands with opposing coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who guided Brazil to the 1994 World Cup title.
The French, champions in 1998 and losing finalists at the last World Cup four years ago, exited this year’s tournament after losses to host South Africa and Mexico, and drawing with Uruguay. The last win by the team in an international competition was a 1-0 victory over Portugal in the 2006 World Cup.
Both Escalettes and Domenech will be questioned by a parliamentary committee tomorrow to elicit details about what led to the player’s strike.
Euro 2008
Escalettes was instrumental in convincing the FFF’s board to retain Domenech as coach after the team was eliminated in the first round of the 2008 European Championships. Domenech was already due to retire after this World Cup, and will be replaced by Laurent Blanc, a member of the winning 1998 team.
The FFF’s board is meeting July 2 to discuss the World Cup. Only eight members of the 21-person board, which chooses the national team coach, are from the world of professional football. The rest represent the country’s amateur leagues, educators, women’s football, or referees.
Bachelot said in a parliamentary debate last week that “immature gang leaders” had bullied some of the younger players into striking. Evra, defender Eric Abidal, and record goalscorer Thierry Henry gave interviews after returning from South Africa saying the decision to strike was unanimous.
Henry also met Sarkozy at the Elysee presidential palace, with neither side revealing details.
Editors: Bob Bensch, Antony Sguazzin.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@Bloomberg.net.
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