French Footballers refuse to train, force team director to resign

It was the FFF's director who resigned, which is an administrative role. The "team manager" would imply the coach of the team, who is Domenech.

Americans + football :roll:

;)

Anelka
Domenech has since distanced himself from the statement and said he was merely reading it and disagreed with it.
The fitness coach has also resigned and some players might boycott th next match accoridng to some sources.
The french press has denounced them.

I think this is brilliant. Why shouldn't footballers go on strike if they feel their team-mates are being victimised? Against all bosses! A bas les patrons!

Anelka

He was always causing me problems when I used to play championship manager. Kept missing training etc. 8-)

le sulk

this article is full of mistakes btw. it was sunday they refused to train

title and spelling fixed ;)

patrice evra, the team captain, has been dropped for today's game...

i wonder who else will miss the match

South Africa leading the match 2 nil atm; revolushun not working

Anelka = 21st century van Hooijdonk (sp?)

He was a sulk in the 20th century aswell. But the goal rate for either does not lie.

Sarkozy said almost a month ago, when France was selected as host for the european cup in 2016 that

, a rather stupid indiscretion for a bourgeois, but then he's not know for his intelligence, even the intelligence of a ruler defending the stupidity of their world. The government and the media are doing their best to humiliate the team - withdrawing their bonuses, and generally subjecting them to a national blame and shame pillory fest. Let that be a warning to everyone who dares rebel against their bosses, the nation and, above all, the spectacle of football - the State's antidote to the crisis (which will certainly continue until 2016).
And, by the way -
revol68 said:

I hate the French

This is the 3rd time I've seen racist comments like this recently on libcom - all directed towards the French. Would "I hate the Jews" or "I hate the Irish" be acceptable on libcom? Or is this because of 1066 and therefore justifiable comment? Would "I hate Irish anarchists who feel ok about being all aggressive online but are quite quiet and inhibited in real life" be acceptable, revol?

Why nor make a "defend the French from racist aggression on the internet" thread, if it's such a concern?

I hate "libertarian communists" from Orlando Florida who think accusing someone of being French (which you did to a friend of mine) is a substitute for an argument. Are you a Bushite, by any chance? - do you refuse to buy French fries, use French letters or play the French horn ? Mr. Libertarian Communist - wouldn't you find it extremely dumb if someone responded to one of your posts by saying "Well, he's American" and left it at that?

I say hurrah for the revolutionary defeatism of the French footie team personally. The main enemy is at home. The South African footballers are not your enemy. Turn the Imperialst Game into a Civil Game, turn your boots on your bosses, that sort of thing.

And yes chauvinistic (good French word there) attitudes against French people are pretty annoying.

i don't think you should take comments like "i hate the french" particularly seriously, to be honest

revol - "Crying like a lil bitch" etc etc ... your standard brash slobbish role of contemptuous cynic dismissive of everything is simply the banal common denominator of those utterly resigned to what is (including the pathetic nationalist spectacle of football): you somehow think that because you add a bit of anarchist ideology onto this steroeotypical attitude gives you a rebellious image, but it's no more radical than the kind of discourse you find on "Skins". And in responding to my "by the way" aside you show you have nothing to say about what is really relevant to this thread - the quote from Sarkozy:

"football is the antidote to the crisis"

sport used to deflect people's attention from bigger issues..

i dont see sarkozy's comment as particularly unique

revol68

chewing gum for the eyes

no thanks.

Admin; idiotic trolling deleted

revol68

a real life french anarchist who stayed with me and choccy said that about us watching tele

fuck sake, I thought you were quoting Father Ted.
Jesus the French are really messed up, eh?

A couple of viewpoints on the spectacle (and FIFA, but not so much on the nature of the business, i.e. slavery): good, recent articles:

Zirin: Football Not Just About Capitalism
http://www.zcommunications.org/the-eagleton-has-landed-a-response-on-sports-and-society-by-dave-zirin

The World Cup war, Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/LF12Dj02.html

Though a lover of the beautiful game, I'll be happy when all the racist propaganda -- and the chauvanism observable in the street -- and all the other crap that happens during internationals, ends when Spain win the feckin thing. And, then, halfwits will resume their debates over how terrible those terribly overpaid footballers are. I love football, but not like this. Not with its bourgeois falsehood so in my face.

I was hoping for some country outside Europe to win - certainly the effect on the class struggle in Spain if they win will be horrible. Got absolutely nothing against people enjoying watching a game, but the miserable social relations that are part of it (not least, the impoverishment of the South Africans evicted and displaced directy as a result of the game) can't be ignored by the usual dismissive "I've heard that boring critique a million boring times before it's so boring I can't even be bothered to boringly go into it let's all go back to sleep" expression of the utter decomposition of those resigned to this shit world so much that they invariably feel forced to stereotype and caricature anyone who tries to express their disgust.

What was unusual about Sarkozy saying "football is the antidote to the crisis" was his explicitness: it's what the rulers think, but only an idiot like Sarkozy forgets that as a bourgeois you're not meant to say what you really think.

Btw, I'm not French - so all that crap implying I was personally upset is nonsense. And revols silly but fairly innocuous post reminded me more of really racist comments by Tarwater and someone else, where they used the idea that a friend of mine was French as a way of dismissing his arguments. Would it be ok for someone here to post "He's a Jew" as a way of dismissing a critique of Palestinian nationalism?

Btw 2: that Zirin article says somewhere that football is an art - sadly, I don't think he meant that art, being the spectacle of creativity, and the World Cup, being the spectacle of sport, should both be attacked and destroyed. But then he's a journalist, so what else could you expect?

Found this on a Guardian CIF post:

...If anything has taken hold of les bleus, it seems the radical ennui of the soixant-huitards. After all, many of the slogans of May 1968 seemed to have been on the players' minds:

- Porsche, foot, dodo ("Porsche, footie, sleep")
- Sous le gazon, la plage. ("Under the pitch, the beach.")
- À bas la société supporter-marchande. ("Down with supporter-commodity society".)
- Marquer des buts est contre-révolutionnaire. ("Scoring goals is counter-revolutionary.")
- La coupe du monde: piège à cons ("The world cup: trap for idiots")
- La liberté, c’est le droit de perdre. ("Freedom is the right to lose")
- Millionnaires de Football de tous les pays, unissez-vous, le vent tourne. ("Football Millionaires of the world unite. The wind is turning.")
- L'entraîneur a besoin de toi, tu n'as pas besoin de lui ("The coach needs you. You don't need him.")
- Imagine: c'est la séance d'entraînement et personne n'y va! ("Imagine there was a training session and no one turned up!")
- Un entraîneur dort en chacun de nous, il faut le tuer. ("A coach sleeps inside each one of us. We must kill him.")
- L'arbitre siffle le coup d'envoi: première humiliation de la journée. ("The referee whistles for kick-off: first humiliation of the day.")
- Je suis venu, j'ai vu, j'ai perdu. ("I came, I saw, I lost.")
- Ne vous emmerdez plus! Emmerdez les supporters français!
("Don't screw yourself up any more! Screw the French fans!")