French soccer fans mock Irish to sing Blues on TV rights
Thursday November 12 2009
It looks like Canal+ does comedy just as badly as RTE. But even by French standards this was high farce.
Police evicted a mob of mock Irish fans after they caused a kerfuffle during a France training session in Clairefontaine.
Frenchies dressed as drunken Irish fans to shout, chant and cause havoc at the training ground south of Paris.
The fiasco, which was part of a French supporters' protest, may only serve to strengthen the resolve of true Irish supporters who will be making lots of noise come Saturday.
The activists were from Canal+, a French TV station which did not gain rights to show the Croke Park game,
Disguised as Irish fans, the French mob were acting in a manner that called for police intervention.
The France team can expect similar on Saturday when they experience the hostile atmosphere of Croker.
The 90-minute session was not interrupted as France coach Raymond Domenech put his players through their paces.
This is just the latest controversy caused by the French in the lead up to the World Cup playoff. Coach Raymond Domenech had already caused a stir when he urged the French fans to snap up all the tickets to the Paris leg to limit the numbers of Irish at the game. The French Football Federation reacted to this by not selling tickets for that game online or over the phone. Last week it emerged that the football federation were also seeking an inflated price for the rights to show the Paris game. The FFF wants €1.5m for the TV rights with RTE understood to be offering around €600,000.
hnews@herald.ie
- French soccer fans mock Irish to sing Blues on TV rights By Cormac Byrne
