Gallas blames Domenech for France's World Cup flop

Published on Wednesday 7 July 2010 20:42

COACH Raymond Domenech was the chief architect of France's World Cup failure because of his inability to communicate with the players, Arsenal's William Gallas has claimed.

The 32-year-old central defender, capped 84 times by France, started all three group games of Les Bleus' South African campaign which ended with a first round exit and was marred by scandals off the pitch.

"The real problem was the coach. We suffered from a communication problem. Domenech was not open to discussion," he said in an interview to be published by the cultural weekly Les Inrockuptibles.

"A lot of players could not talk to him any more. Our opinion carried no weight, so, after a while, we stopped talking. That's what I did. I was just listening and doing what he told me to do."

Gallas also said that Domenech was responsible for the boycott of a training session in support of Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka, who was sent home for insulting the coach at half-time in their 2-0 defeat by Mexico in their second group game. "We wanted to protest against the decision taken by the coach and the Federation particularly because the coach said Anelka had not been kicked out because of his insults but because he had refused to talk about it afterwards," he said.

"It's him (Domenech] who refused discussion. The boycott of the training session was decided during a meeting of all the players. Franck Ribery was late because of a television interview. We all agreed to boycott training. There was no pressure from the senior players."

Domenech's six-year tenure ended in such a disgrace that it caused uproar in France. Sports minister Roselyne Bachelot castigated "the disaster of the national team made of immature gang leaders in command of scared kids".

Lilian Thuram, a prominent member of the 1998 World Cup-winning team and now a member of the French Federation's council, said the players who led the revolt should be banned from playing for France again.

France's new coach, Laurent Blanc, however, told his first press conference on Tuesday that it was not his responsibility to take disciplinary action against players like Ribery, Patrice Evra or Eric Abidal who have been branded as the ringleaders.

"I shall select them if I think they are the best players available," he said. "I shall have to make choices and, perhaps, some of the players who were in South Africa will not be chosen if I decide they are not the best in their position."

The first real answer will come when the new coach names his first squad before France travel to Oslo for a friendly against Norway on 11 August.

The first official game under his tenure is scheduled for 3 September when Les Bleus host Belarus in a Euro 2012 qualifier.