Search: ' Didier Deschamps'

James Eastham discusses the newest scandal which has shaken French football

It was all going too well. The France national team’s remarkable rebirth under Laurent Blanc came to an abrupt halt last month following the publication of transcripts from tapes that threatened not only to end the former Manchester United defender’s impressive start as les Bleus manager, but also engulf French football in a bigger scandal than the World Cup players’ strike.

Read more…

James Eastham attends a star-studded charity match and feels that a similar situation would look very different in England

May 25, 5pm. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez’s private jet touches down on the tarmac at Marck aerodrome, 183 miles north of Paris. Out steps a smiling Zinedine Zidane. He strides over to greet 200 or so supporters eagerly waiting for an autograph or photo.

Read more…

My autobiography
by Chris Sutton with Mark Guidi
Black & White, £18.99
Reviewed by Jonathan O'Brien
From WSC 302 April 2012

Buy this book

No one who remembers Chris Sutton needlessly humiliating David Tanner of Sky Sports during one of Celtic's on-pitch title celebrations in the early 2000s – "Chris, just what is it that has made Celtic champions this year?" "We got more points than anyone else" – would describe him as an easy character to like. If Sutton has never come across an amiable type, that is because he has never made the slightest attempt to present himself that way.

Read more…

Marseille's late owner has left the club with a legacy of big investment but underachievement, as James Eastham reports

Did Robert Louis-Dreyfus die an unhappy man? In his role as owner of Olympique de Marseille, he was certainly unfulfilled. The Franco-Swiss billionaire (rated the fifth richest man in France this year, with a family fortune of €7 billion) passed away on July 4, 2009, succumbing to the leukemia he had suffered from for more than a decade. He became OM’s owner on December 14, 1996 but failed to win a single trophy during his 12-and-a-half-year reign. Marseille came close on several occasions – runners-up in the French League three times (1999, 2007 and 2009) and losing finalists in the UEFA Cup (1999 and 2004) and French Cup (2006 and 2007) – but are still seeking their first piece of silverware since 1993.

Read more…

After their embarrassing exit in the group stages in 2002, France atoned for their errors by reaching the final. Neil McCarthy gauges the reaction across the channel

There’s a hard lesson to learn from the performances in the 1998 and 2006 World Cups: the less the French public think of their team, the better they do. Victory in one World Cup then reaching another final is a record that surely any country outside Brazil would be jealous of. But as 2002 proved, it only happens to France if the supporters really believe it won’t.

Read more…