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.

:lol: =d> \:d/

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