France tells FIFA to mind its own business

French lawmakers held a closed-door meeting regarding the country’s recent World Cup fiasco in South Africa and stated on June 30 that manager Raymond Domenech wouldn’t take any responsibility for the team’s poor showing and misbehaviour and couldn’t explain the events.

The lawmakers stated the soon-to-retire Domenech attempted to blame the media at the hearing and this led lawmaker Jean-Francois Cope to state that Domenech’s testimony was undignified.

However, most of the politicians had nicer things to say about Jean-Pierre Escalettes, the French Football Federation president who said he will quit this week. Escalettes also spoke during the National Assembly’s commission on culture and education’s hearing.

The hearing took place even though FIFA warned the French government about interfering in the soccer team’s affairs. FIFA president Sepp Blatter stated earlier that the French national team could be suspended from soccer if the country’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and/or any other politicians get involved in the operations of the federation. However, French lawmakers said it’s not Blatter’s business to dictate to them how to go about their affairs.

Lawmaker Eric Ciotti said it’s not FIFA’s place to threaten France’s lawmakers as they live in a democracy and parliament has the right to hold hearings. He added that the issue was more than just football as the country’s honour is also on the line.

Lawmaker Jacques Remiller said the entire meeting was disappointing and there should be more resignations by members of the football federation as there are some deep-rooted problems there.

The team, which lifted the World Cup in 1998 and lost in the final in 2006, drew one game and lost the other two in this year’s tournament in South Africa for a last place finish in Group A. The players refused to train after striker Nicolas Anelka was booted off the team for hurling insults at Domenech. The French manager then added more fuel to the fire as he wouldn’t shake hands South African manager Carlos Alberto Parreira after losing 2-1 to them.

It was reported that Domenech placed the blame on a French newspaper which published the details of Anelka’s outburst. Domenech said he wouldn’t shake Parreira’s hand as Parreira supposedly made some uncomplimentary remarks about France’s team to reporters.

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