FORMER NATIONAL team manager Raymond Domenech was summoned to appear before a French parliamentary commission yesterday to answer questions on the World Cup fiasco, but the government denied any political interference in football affairs.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter said this week that the French Football Federation (FFF) could be suspended if France’s politicians kept meddling in the sport.
“There was never any question of the French government interfering in the affairs of the French Football Federation,” government spokesman Luc Chatel said yesterday.
FFF president Jean-Pierre Escalettes announced his resignation on Monday in the wake of France’s debacle in South Africa, saying the decision was his own, but sports minister Roselyne Bachelot had said last week his resignation was “inevitable”. “She (Bachelot) indeed indicated that she personally believed his resignation was inevitable but she did not ask for his resignation,” Chatel said.
Bachelot appeared before the National Assembly commission earlier this week, and Chatel defended the group’s inquiry by saying it was “normal for members of parliament to try to find out exactly what happened, because it is a topic that preoccupies French people”.
Yesterday’s hearing involving Domenech and Escalettes was closed to the media at the FFF’s request, but according to politicians who attended, Escalettes told the commission he had felt helpless against the player revolt that led to him handing in his resignation.
The FFF official said he could do nothing to stop the players boycotting a training session in support of expelled striker Nicolas Anelka.
The 75-year-old Escalettes told the commission about the incident at Knysna in South Africa’s Western Cape, and how he had tried to convince the players sitting on the team coach that refusing to train was not a good idea.
The players, who eventually left the World Cup in disgrace with just one point and one goal from three group matches, would not listen and continued the boycott to protest against the FFF decision to expel Anelka after he had insulted Domenech. French forward Florent Malouda admitted this week that the strike was a “disastrous” mistake.
Escalettes and Domenech told the commission they had tried their best to reason with the rebellious players. “He (Escalettes) told us that on the bus they (Escalettes and Domenech) had used every conceivable argument in vain,” commission member Lionel Tardy said after yesterday’s hearing.
“Escalettes told us they faced a wall (of opposition), something he had never experienced in over 50 years in football, and they could not make it fall,” he added. “For him, something was broken that day.”
Escalettes faced criticism for failing to prevent the squad’s implosion but also for having always supported Domenech, whose traumatic six-year tenure ended with France’s elimination.
Domenech told the commission French sports daily L'Équipehad contributed to the team's collapse by printing Anelka's crude insults on its front page. Domenech entered the National Assembly through a side door to avoid the large media presence and sat through the pre-meeting photocall with his eyes closed.
