FRENCH MEDIA reaction to the refusal of their squad to train on Sunday following Nicolas Anelka’s expulsion.
L'Equipe: "A rebellion? No, a caprice. A strike? No, cowardliness. Don't deceive yourself. The republican solidarity our players showed the world yesterday is an illusion. "The [football federation] has created a farce; it's froth, a stink bomb that keeps on exploding.
“Patrice Evra has once and for all shown he has muddled up the role of captain with that of a gang leader. Raymond Domenech, by lending a hand to this masquerade and reading out the players’ statement, has missed his final opportunity to show some style and courage.”
Le Parisien: "Every day, Les Bleus push back the frontiers of the unacceptable. This band of spoilt children, left free to do what they like by their entire hierarchy, has no limit, no sense of duty so close to the match against South Africa.
“To have the worst football team at the World Cup was already unbearable. To also have the most stupid is intolerable . . . The mutiny at Knysna will forever remain the Waterloo of French football.”
Le Figaro: "It is collective suicide … the French team has heaped ridicule on itself in front of the world yesterday at Knysna. The field of dreams became the set of a living nightmare. It was almost hallucinatory. It's a psychodrama that will go down in the history of the World Cup. The French team has been reduced to ashes."
Libération: "We take them to be role models for kids who have lost their way in life, but in reality they are just bling-bling traders for a sport which yesterday lost a lot of credit in France."
Le Progrès de Lyon: "They should have contented themselves with being bad on the pitch and arrogant off it as they already have been for a few years.
Honestly, they amaze us. No doubt they can do even worse.”
Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace: "In a certain way France has already made a success of the 2010 World Cup. History will remember only two teams from this World Cup: the winning country and also perhaps France. Les Bleus have shown great mastery of a worldwide scandal. A triumph!"
