Les Bleus home under heavy security
Source: Agencies |
June 25, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FRANCE'S World Cup flops arrived home yesterday to a cold welcome after a humiliating early exit that has been condemned by domestic media as a scandal.
The team's chartered plane landed in the small Le Bourget airport near Paris. A smattering of supporters were kept at a distance and dozens of photographers, cameramen and journalists were penned behind a wire fence.
France was eliminated from the first round. At the tournament it went on strike, failed to win a match and had striker Nicolas Anelka thrown off the squad for insulting the coach. Raymond Domenech, who is retiring as coach, added yet more dismay by refusing to shake hands with rival coach Carlos Alberto Parreira after France's 1-2 loss to South Africa.
Striker Thierry Henry, a former team captain and a 1998 World Cup champion who only played 52 minutes across two games in South Africa, stepped off the plane and joined a small motorcade sent by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Henry went to a private meeting with Sarkozy, entering the Elysee Palace by a side door.
The football fiasco is taking an increasingly political turn in France, where the leading sports daily L'Equipe has dubbed the debacle "A state scandal."
Sarkozy has vowed to personally investigate the matter.
The team's chartered plane landed in the small Le Bourget airport near Paris. A smattering of supporters were kept at a distance and dozens of photographers, cameramen and journalists were penned behind a wire fence.
France was eliminated from the first round. At the tournament it went on strike, failed to win a match and had striker Nicolas Anelka thrown off the squad for insulting the coach. Raymond Domenech, who is retiring as coach, added yet more dismay by refusing to shake hands with rival coach Carlos Alberto Parreira after France's 1-2 loss to South Africa.
Striker Thierry Henry, a former team captain and a 1998 World Cup champion who only played 52 minutes across two games in South Africa, stepped off the plane and joined a small motorcade sent by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Henry went to a private meeting with Sarkozy, entering the Elysee Palace by a side door.
The football fiasco is taking an increasingly political turn in France, where the leading sports daily L'Equipe has dubbed the debacle "A state scandal."
Sarkozy has vowed to personally investigate the matter.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
