It was somehow appropriate that at the end of French soccer's annus horribilis, the man whose alleged halftime rant kick-started the World Cup's most astonishing team meltdown continued his row with the French football federation and accused it of "another provocation."
In the days leading up to France¹s 2010 World Cup squad announcement last May, the French press played a guessing game called "Who's the new Chimbonda?" The game involved plucking names out of thin air predicting who would be eccentric French coach Raymond Domenech's surprise call-up.
NEW YORK -- Is a second World Cup cycle one too many for a national-team coach?
Why take on a challenge in which you can't do any better when you can go somewhere you can't do any worse? That would seem the gist of the rationale behind Laurent Blanc's reported decision to turn down the coaching job at European champions and Italian double-winners Internazionale and instead take over the France side after the most embarrassing World Cup campaign in its history.
They may be out of the World Cup, but French lawmakers haven't lost interest in the team. CNN's Jim Bittermann reports.
CNN?s Pedro Pinto discusses the French team?s World Cup woes with a panel of international sports journalists.
French sponsors, fans, the press and politicians are denouncing the team's staged boycott after a striker was sent home.
For once, France's outspoken coach Raymond Domenech is a peripheral figure in the latest, and most significant, scandal to afflict the national team before its World Cup campaign.
Everybody hates Raymond. Or so it would appear yet again after the French national team's insipid performances to date in the quest for automatic World Cup qualification.
It was six months ago that fans were treated to a scintillating European Championship. Here's a look at how the leading actors of Euro 2008 are now faring:
SI.com's Gabriele Marcotti is in Switzerland and Austria for the 2008 European Championship. Here's his primer for the tournament.
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Raymond Domenech. I don't think he's a particularly nice person and I don't believe he's a particularly good coach.
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