French Soccer and the Future of Europe
David Zirin and John Cox
The story of the 2006 World Cup has been the resurrection of France. After a
lacklustre performance in its first two games, the French team shocked the
football watching world - otherwise known as "the
world" - by upsetting Spain and then dethroning Brazil, the second time in
three World Cups the French have knocked off the global kings of "the
beautiful game."
While hundreds of thousands of people celebrated on
the Champs-Elysées following France's stunning
turn-around, not everyone was feeling the joy. Proud
racist and leader of the ultra-right wing National
Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, could not resist defiling
the moment. Le Pen decried France's multi-ethnic team
as unrepresentative of French society, saying that
France "cannot recognize itself in the national side,"
and "maybe the coach exaggerated the proportion of
players of color and should have been a bit more
careful."
Le Pen and others of his ilk do not recognize
themselves in a team whose leader is of Algerian
descent - Zinedine Zidane - and whose most feared
striker is black - Thierry Henry. Le Pen used to
torture Algerians for the French military in the 1950s
and it turns his stomach that his team reflects
France's (and Europe's) colonial past, with players
from Cameroon, Guadalupe, Senegal, Congo, Algeria, and
Benin among other countries.
Le Pen's efforts to use the pitch as a battleground
for his Neanderthal views about immigration and Islam
have not gone unanswered. After his latest comments,
France midfielder Lilian Thuram said, "Clearly, he is
unaware that there are Frenchmen who are black,
Frenchmen who are white, Frenchmen who are brown. I
think that reflects particularly badly on a man who
has aspirations to be president of France but yet
clearly doesn't know anything about French history or
society.... That's pretty serious. He's the type of
person who'd turn on the television and see the
American basketball team and wonder: 'Hold on, there
are black people playing for America? What's going
on?'"
Thuram went on to say, "When we take to the field, we
do so as Frenchmen. All of us. When people were
celebrating our win, they were celebrating us as
Frenchmen, not black men or white men. It doesn't
matter if we're black or not, because we're French.
I've just got one thing to say to Jean Marie Le Pen.
The French team are all very, very proud to be French.
If he's got a problem with us, that's down to him but
we are proud to represent this country. So Vive la
France, but the true France. Not the France that he
wants."
In addition, the immensely talented Henry has started
an antiracist campaign called Stand Up Speak Up. Henry
pushed his sponsor Nike to produce black and white
intertwined armbands that demonstrate a commitment
against racism. So far, they have sold more than five
million. "That's important in making the very real
point that racism is a problem for everyone, a
collective ailment," Henry said to Time Magazine. "It
shows that people of all colors, even adversaries on
the pitch, are banding together in this, because we're
all suffering from it together."
Henry's campaign has resonance because Le Pen does not
have the market cornered on racism in the sport.
So-called fans, throwing banana peels and peanuts at
star players of African descent, have plagued European
soccer this past season. For much of the World Cup,
such assaults did not occur. But before the June 27th
game against Spain, the French coach, Raymond
Domenech, said Spanish fans were "making monkey
chants" as the French team left their bus. The
incident evoked memories of an outrageous racist
diatribe against Thierry Henry delivered by Spanish
coach Luis Aragones to "inspire" his team before a
match against France a couple years ago. When France
defeated Spain last week, it was more just desserts
for Aragones and another bitter pill for Le Pen.
Thuram and Henry are continuing a proud tradition of
recent years, as players from "Les Bleus," as the
national team is called, have consistently spoken out
against those like Le Pen who cannot countenance a
non-white French team. Le Pen made headlines before
the 1998 World Cup for saying that France's
multi-ethnic team was "artificial," and was mortified
when Zidane and Henry did something no previous
Frenchmen had accomplished-won the World Cup, a
triumph that was widely celebrated as a victory for
multiculturalism. While Le Pen was campaigning in the
presidential elections of 2002, the French team issued
a statement denouncing the politics of the National
Front. Delivered by Ghanaian-born captain Marcel
Desailly, the statement read: "The players in the
French team, from diverse origins . . . are unanimous
in condemning resurgent ideas of racism and
exclusion." Desailly's statement further condemned
"attitudes that endanger democracy and freedom as
intolerable and indefensible, particularly in a
multi-ethnic and multi-cultural France." Zidane
amplified this message, calling for a huge vote
against Le Pen.
It is paradoxical that a victory by France, a country
with as grisly a colonial past as any European power,
could be a cause for celebration by immigrants and
fighters for social justice. But as last year's
"suburb" riots and mass youth demonstrations have
shown, there is a battle over the future of French
politics and by extension, the future of Europe.
Anti-Arab and Moslem sentiment is by no means
monopolized by Le Pen and his cronies on the far
right. Whether or not they defeat Italy for the title,
the astonishing success of France's multi-ethnic team
presents another vision for the future of the
continent.
Dave Zirin is the author of "'What's My name Fool?':
Sports and Resistance in the United States." Contact
him at whatsmynamefool2005@yahoo.com
John Cox is an
assistant History professor at Florida Gulf Coast
University.
July 2006
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