French wrestle with their conscience over goal cheat
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THE jubilant cheers of the French supporters leaving the Stade de France or watching on TV at home on Wednesday night were fading by the following morning.
From the cold north to the sunny Riviera, it seems to me, an Irishman living in France for the past 20 years, that the French were ashamed at the way the France-Ireland match was won.
Even the French Minister for Health and Sports, 63-year old Roselyn Bachelot admitted, on the popular RTL radio programme on Thursday morning, to a "mal au ventre", a sick feeling in the stomach, at the way France "qualified" for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
"It's shameful, inadmissible, you Irish didn't deserve that," said my soccer-mad, music-loving young friend when I saw him the next morning.
He even took the earplugs from his iPod out of his ears to commiserate with me.
"It wasn't the hand of God," he told me, "it was the hand of the thief."
This reaction is widespread.
"No, not like this, it's just not right," said the man in the supermarket as he set out lines of fresh fruit.
I confess I had been expecting a kind of Gallic shrug of "c'est la vie", "that's life", to come from the press on Thursday morning.
But from the national TV channels to the newspapers to the sports blogs, the French are freely using strong terms like "honte" (shame) and "tricherie" (cheating) to condemn not only their national soccer team but also the "win at all costs" system that allowed Wednesday night to happen.
In France it seems the harbingers of justice are the ordinary citizens, for both President Sarkozy and Prime Minister François Fillon could do no better than to say: ". . . we leave it to the competent football authorities to decide, governments do not interfere".
As I watched both these figures this week I saw their practiced political posturing.
From their facial expressions though, I wondered if they were really quite so non-committal in private.
Nobody is really happy in France with the match result, except perhaps the national manager, Raymond Domenech, who does not see the need to apologise at all as he joins the politicians in saying: "It was a referee's mistake. For me it was just a fact of the game and it wasn't cheating."
He stands to make €862,000 as a result of France qualifying.
But what do the French parents now tell their children, brought up in a delightfully strict code of fairness and respect?
Well, the national France 2 television lunchtime news on Thursday came right out and said: "It would be difficult for a teacher to go into the classroom today and tell children that cheating is wrong . . ."
And to back this up the National Trade Union of Sports Teachers, with nearly 30,000 members, asked whether Raymond Domenech "was really going to condone the behaviour of his players, allowing money, violence, cheating . . . to dominate sport?"
Minister of the Economy, Industry and Employment, Christine Lagarde said she wanted to see the match replayed. And she added: "I am very happy that the French team has qualified but it is very sad that they qualified by cheating in this way."
But what of the French Football Federation itself? The 74-year old President, Jean-Pierre Escalettes, admitted he understood the Irish frustrations, but then called on us to "forget this evening and use it for the future. You have to take a philosophical approach to this match. Football is played on small details, however, qualification is still beautiful."
To whom, M Escalettes?
It is no surprise to me that the jokes and puns have started about "handball" but it is ironic that the French are very good at handball, winning a gold medal in the sport at the Beijing Olympics last year.
But will they win the World Cup in South Africa?
"We don't even deserve to go to the World Cup next year," said my French friend, "Ireland does."
Francis O'Hara is a teacher and author who has lived in Nice for more than 20 years
Irish Independent
