For a while, it was almost possible to feel sorry for Raymond Domenech yesterday but then even he found a way to apply a final blot to his record with that petulant refusal to shake hands with South Africa’s manager Carlos Alberto Parriera after the game.

A bit late to be objecting the use of hands in football, mon ami

Should the Gael be rejoicing in the cataclysmic collapse of the Gaul? It would take a pillar of moral rectitude not to, especially at that priceless moment in yesterday’s match when Thierry Henry controlled the ball with his arm, although this time he was content to touch it just the once, bless him.

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/hand-of-fate-gives-hapless-france-one-final-slap-123180.html#ixzz0re1SB9Hf

FRANCE AND the hosts are gone. And rightly so – the South Africans were below the required standard, while the famed French spirit crumbled.

This has been in the post since Raymond Domenech took over six years ago. Prior to the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualification match against France in Paris in October 2004 an esteemed French football coach told me we had a genuine chance. Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Willy Sagnol had retired. My source told me the players had not warmed to the new coach.

The impression I got of Domenech was of an aloof, strange even, individual with questionable man-management skills. When I heard about his interest in solving selection quandaries with the use of astrology I wondered had I got it wrong with all those coaching courses. Jaysus, I never knew Duffer is Pisces! Robbie is Cancer and Kevin Doyle a Virgo. According to the stars I had my alignments all wrong!

Our paths have crossed at intervals since and on no occasion did he ever show the courtesy that is standard practice between national team coaches. France were staying in the same hotel as us in the Faroes Islands for the qualification game for the current World Cup but he seemed not to recognise me. There was an arrogance about him that I couldn’t help but dislike.

Before the crucial game of my tenure as Ireland manager in Dublin in September 2005 Domenech was under savage pressure as it looked like Switzerland, or us, might edge them for first place in the group. Somehow a stroke was pulled by a French government anxious to get Zidane, Thuram and Sagnol back for the Lansdowne Road match. They returned and the rest is history as Thierry Henry’s goal broke our hearts (Henry, of course, wasn’t finished there).

I found it bizarre to see their government involving themselves in football matters. I know what I would have said at such a suggestion from Bertie or one of his ministers! The French government were back involved this week. The cracks in their squad have been evident for much of Domenech’s time in charge even in their run to the 2006 World Cup final, when they were united by Zidane’s brilliance, but his survival after a very poor Euro 2008 amazed me. The decision to propose to his girlfriend Estelle at a post-match interview after an awful display that led to their elimination by Italy was in line with many of his strange ways. Yet, absurdly, his contract was renewed.

The Anelka affair was the final straw but the French federation must shoulder blame for announcing Laurent Blanc as Domenech’s successor before the tournament. The tension was at boiling point yet the situation where players are refusing to train (or play?) leaves a proud footballing nation in a state of depression. Domenech survived the politics of the French federation for far too long and the French team and public have suffered as a result.

I doubt any of those players will play for France again, certainly not those who come off worst in the looming PR exercise (get yer popcorn, kids...).

And the FFF will also be decimated. A swag of resignations on the way. And to think that just a few years ago, the worst stain of French football was an inglorious headbutt...

What I love about this national disgrace is that it is so very, very, very FRENCH. The aloofness, the arrogance, the merde-ness, the je ne sais quoi... Anyone who's ever been treated with disdain by a Parisian croissant-seller will know what I am talking about.

If there is anything more likely to fill English fans with joie de jolly old vivre than elegant Frenchmen immolating themselves on a bonfire they created, we don't care to hear about it. Certainly not when George Osborne's axe is on our throat and what remains of English masculinity depends on a football match between England and a team from a tiny country most couldn't pick out on a map.

How much we envy the French and their grand gestes. How much England yearns to do what the French did in 1998, to win the World Cup with a mixed-race team that seemed to symbolise a post-colonial rainbow nation at ease with its manifold differences (nearly 180 degrees from the truth about modern France, but let's not spoil the narrative). How much we'd like to have the cavalier attitude towards victory France had in 2006, when their greatest footballer sent his team crashing out of a World Cup final by nutting an opponent who'd insulted his sister...

But there is more to the French disaster than a tradition of revolutionary resistance. There is what French philosopher Alain Badiou calls "the sacrificial temptations of nothingness". "Failing" is always very close to "winning", Badiou writes in The Communist Hypothesis. Tell that to Paris, Alain. He has a point, though. "One of the great Maoist slogans of the 'red years' was 'Dare to struggle and dare to win'. But we know that it is not easy to follow that slogan when subjectivity is afraid, not of fighting, but of winning."

This may explain the French team's psychology. Why would the French fear victory? Because, following Badiou, they see that triumph is only temporary, an imposter. There is a parallel between France's revolutions and its footballing triumphs: neither endure. And one response to that unpalatable truth is to choose defeat in a gesture Sartre would have appreciated. If that's what happened, respect to the French: what a wonderfully existentialist way to go.

L'équipe

"That's it. Their ordeal – our ordeal – is over. No longer must we support this team whose whims drained us all. Les Bleus are eliminated and got what they deserved: they were ridiculous till the end. At no point did this team show the slightest trace of a soul."
France football

"Easily beaten by a very modest South African team, Les Bleus left the tournament by the same way they came in: by the back door. After spending the weekend playing at being trade unionists and special agents, they forgot to play football. Physically and psychologically unprepared, they simply couldn't put one foot in front of the other.
Le Monde

"France are out … the World Cup has lost its jesters. For the first time in French history, the public and the players greet an exit with relief. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that "in football, everything is complicated by the presence of an opponent" but this French team showed you don't necessarily need an opponent – they were able to sabotage themselves. To all the questions that teams are asked in this sort of tournament, Les Bleus – the players, the staff and the FFF – gave the wrong answers, and ended up in a total fiasco ... We must turn the page. Or rather, rip it out."
Le Figaro

The Debacle is complete

"After the sending-off they were overwhelmed and outclassed. Drifting, they almost drowned. They managed to avoid a severe spanking but the upshot was the same as if they had: they lost without ever suggesting they could rebel against defeat or save their honour. The fact that Raymond Doemench refused to shake the hand of Carlos Alberto Parreira is too serious go ignore. It is an inexcuable lack of respect. How can he ask players to be dignified and behave in exemplary fashion when he acts like this? Ridiculous.
Le Parisien

"Pitiful, ridiculous, shameful … it's hard to find the words to describe this France team in this World Cup. South Africa were hyperactive despite their limited ability, while France were without desire, answers or a clue. When it comes to identifying those responsible for this fiasco, the list is almost endless. But Raymond Domenech tops it … with his incoherent selections, inability to mould a group and publicity skills that make him one of the most unpopular men in the country, the manager leaves his post after six years with one highlight – a World Cup final appearance in 2006 for which stalwarts such as Zidane, Vieira and Makele deserve more credit than him ….. Laurent Blanc will arrive in a few days on to a field of ruins. What a waste."

:lol: =d> \:d/

Funny thing is, in the long run, they probably would have been better off NOT qualifying.