KARMA'S A BITCH YO!

I'm not sticking up for France - and I used to play soccer a lot years ago but wasn't int following a club - was always more into watching highlights of World Cup etc

Anyway, it was a disgrace that France got away with the handball but to be honest, I was more annoyed at the ref.

If Ireland won due to a handball, would we all be saying "No - we can't go to the World Cup - its not fair" ??

I guess because I don't follow football, I find it hard to understand the hatred for France.

As I said - I was pissed at the referee but not Henry.

P.S. I 100% agree with the Karma

Yeah thats all well and good Spidey, that was the refs fault, we all know that.

But what about when we asked for a rematch, which we were well entitled to (FIFA FAIR PLAY???????) And all we got was mocked and laughed at. The French manager laughed and said he would give us a rematch on the PS3!! Well he has plenty of time for that now!!

Did you see him? He wouldnt even shake the S.AF managers hand at the end, arrogant bar steward! They are cheating bunch of gits Spidey, they wouldnt entertain any sort of a fair replay because they think they have a God given right to be there because they won it before and because the senior Fifa people are ....FRENCH!

I feel sorry for the French public though, most of them were up for a rematch, they were embaressed and not not proud of how they got there, plus most of them, like the team HATE the manager. I have no issue with French people at all, its the team, the management, FIFA, and of course that dopey Swedish ref. All in all, the team didnt want to play for their manager, they didnt want to be there and it was more of an insult that they took our spot and threw it away so easily! We would have worked our little arses off!

And all that from someone who has no interested in football other than the World cup every four years.

I agree with you totally - I didn't really watch all the news and so, hadn't heard arrogant manager etc. So, yeah, totally agree - pepole like that are d1ckheads. And so too for whatever French players felt they were above Ireland. As I said, I don't follow it but in that game, Ireland were as good, if not better

I agree as well with the Fifa problems - its like politics - obviously France is well connected !

Anyway, they have a LOT of internal issues to deal with before they can get back to being world class !

Yes, French and arrogance sometimes go hand in hand. They think they are fashionable, they think they have great public transport an services etc !

VA VA VOOM!

Later France

as if the Rep of Ireland team would have done any better (as he waits for the onslaught of abuse )

I wont abuse you because you are probably right, but we would have given it our absolute best and the fans would have thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Who knows? We have been lucky and done pretty well. We did get to the quarter finals once before!

SWAGGER wrote:
I wont abuse you because you are probably right, but we would have given it our absolute best and the fans would have thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Who knows? We have been lucky and done pretty well. We did get to the quarter finals once before!


... and Northern Ireland have reached the quarter finals twice (1958 & 1982) in the three times we have been in the finals

NI are also the smallest country to ever reach the quarter finals

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_n...tball_team#World_Cup

Shame we couldn't make it to S Africa - I would love to went.

Spanky wrote:
as if the Rep of Ireland team would have done any better (as he waits for the onslaught of abuse )
Your going to get murdered





!VE LA FRANCE!

Good on you guys, thats deffo something to be proud of!

SWAGGER wrote:
Good on you guys, thats deffo something to be proud of!

Sarcasm really suits you

Unfortunate truth is, neither of our teams have a particularly good world cup record, in fairness. Hopefully things are better in the Euro qualifiers. At least France isn't in your group

France? Who are they?

Resentment over Gourcuff treatment behind implosion
MATT SPIRO in Bloemfontein

GROUP A FRANCE 1 SOUTH AFRICA 2 There is a symbolic aspect to the power struggle in the heart of the team and the ills of wider French society

YOANN GOURCUFF could be forgiven for thinking the whole world is against him. Having been ignored by many of his team-mates for the past three weeks, France’s mercurial misfit saw his unhappy World Cup come to an end even more prematurely than that of his colleagues when he was sent off for an elbow in the first half against South Africa yesterday.

Trudging down the tunnel, Bordeaux’s talented playmaker looked dejected, but he must also have felt some relief his personal trials in South Africa were over.

The rift between Gourcuff and several high-profile players, including Nicolas Anelka and Franck Ribery, was the trigger to Les Bleus’ dramatic implosion over the last few days.

Gourcuff is seemingly from a different mould to the others. Intelligent, polite and well-spoken, the 23-year-old does not fit in with what many in France are calling the “spoilt brat” generation. He enjoyed a comfortable childhood in Brittany where his father, Christian, the respected coach of Lorient, ensured he received a rounded education. Clean-cut and good-looking, he is an excellent tennis player, and counts the former Olympic swimming star turned celebrity Laure Manaudou in his social circle.

Most of France’s squad grew up in much tougher conditions in the poorest suburbs. Ribery was raised in a run-down council estate in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Eric Abidal lived in one of Lyon’s most deprived areas, while Thierry Henry, William Gallas and Anelka all spent their childhoods in so-called quartiers difficiles outside Paris.

It is no coincidence these are the players who have frozen Gourcuff out in South Africa. They resent the way the French press builds Gourcuff up as Zinedine Zidane’s successor. They envy the positive attention he receives from the media. They regard him as arrogant and pretentious because he reads books and expresses himself eloquently when analysing a game.

Raymond Domenech wanted to build his attack around the 2008/09 French Player of the Year, but several senior players objected, pressurising the coach to restore Henry or Florent Malouda to the line-up. In the opening game against Uruguay, Anelka and Ribery made their stance abundantly clear by refusing to pass to Gourcuff.

To behave in such a way at a World Cup is unforgivable and many are calling for Anelka and Ribery to be banished from the team for good.

Yet Domenech did not feel he had the authority to sanction them, and instead dropped Gourcuff for the second game against Mexico.

Anelka then went too far by firing a tirade of expletives at Domenech at half-time in that game. The decision to send the Chelsea striker home in disgrace would not have been taken lightly by the French federation. Anelka is a hugely popular figure in France’s multicultural suburbs, and his public shaming is unlikely to sit well in areas where racial tensions run high.

Less than five years ago, these suburbs were transformed into battlefields as disaffected youths, largely from immigrant backgrounds, rioted night upon night for three weeks. Nobody is suggesting France’s soccer debacle will spark similar scenes, yet there is an acutely symbolic aspect to the power struggle in the heart of the team and the apparent ills of wider society.

Indeed, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut has been quick to link the dreadful behaviour of Les Bleus to a wider social problem. “It feels like France has been invited to look into the mirror – a terrible mirror,” he told radio station Europe 1.

“We have moved on from the Zidane generation to the scum generation. Laurent Blanc (Domenech’s successor) should ignore players like Anelka, Ribery, Evra, Gallas and Abidal, who have behaved in a shameful manner, notably with Yoann Gourcuff. They are a gang of thugs. It’s not possible to have these ethnic, religious divides in the France team.”

Finkielkraut is known for his forthright views, yet there can be little doubt cultural differences were behind France’s demise. Interestingly, Gourcuff’s closest acquaintances in the team are Hugo Lloris and Jeremy Toulalan. They are white, but this is not a colour issue. Ribery, of course, is white too, yet he identifies more with those from similar social backgrounds.

Ribery is also idolised by the North African community in France, partly because, like Anelka, he has converted to Islam. But also because he rose to the top from the most difficult of starts and remained humble despite his immense success.

The humility now seems to have gone, however, and France’s campaign appears to have further highlighted a divided nation.