French coach not happy with fixtures

From today's independent, even he knows we have an easier run in than them:

FRANCE manager Raymond Domenech reckons the French Football Federation were conned by the FAI at the World Cup fixtures meeting in Dublin last year.

Brian Kerr got 95 per cent of what he wanted out of that meeting which was attended by the then French manager Jacques Santini.

But Domenech, who replaced Santini after Euro 2004, reckons they were duped by their hosts into allowing Ireland play away to Switzerland, France, Israel early in the qualifiers.

"They said they needed to play their away matches first because they would be carrying out building work at Lansdowne Road," said Domenech.

"That is still not the case, however. They did well but the fact that we believed the Irish makes me smile.

"It is a shame but you have to realise that when it was all decided people still had it in their heads that we were world champions.

"Nobody worried in the least about the fixture list then but for me it is clear the calendar has been badly negotiated."

The French manager will get a chance to ask Kerr how he pulled it off tomorrow night because the Irish manager will be part of the crowd in the Ramat Gan Stadium to see Israel play France.

Kerr will fly out to Israel tomorrow morning after guiding his side through tonight's friendly against China at Lansdowne Road.

Domenech's rattled :D He's cocked it up at home and knows he'll need a victory over us in Dublin to go through. Not a hope in hell.
Lovely Jubbly :p

Very amusing....They gave in to the pressure from the FAI and cos they had already missed flights home that day. Its worked out for us alright.... always better to get the difficult awat games over with. I was happy with the FAI that day for a change.

Yep, some credit to the FAI :eek: To be fair, they sorted out the 2002 qualifying games to our advantage as well

It's a pathetic excuse. The French have simply failed to perform and the manger is trying to deflect some of the criticism. If this truely mirrors the mentality among their sqaud I wouldn't fancy their chances of a win tomorrow.

IMO he'll be sacked if France don't win on wednesday. Sounds like he under pressure.

Seems Domenech is getting his excuses in early, think he'll be picking up his P45 unless they register a comfortable win tomorrow night.

It was the FAI's job to get the best schedule for Ireland, not France.

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Originally Posted by pronane

what are you on??? dont be so **** sure. the french soccer team, is going to emulate the rugby team, and id say there is a good chance it could happen in dublin...again!

why is everyone so confident of us turning them over in dublin, is it because of the away game in israel????!?!?!??! if thats the case then oh ya we will hammer them 6 or 7 nil

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none of the ladz on ere are claiming we'll hammer them for six :confused:
Whats the rugby got to do with Group 4 qualifiers then :confused:
Off with yeah on yer bike there lad :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Littlest Hobo

none of the ladz on ere are claiming we'll hammer them for six :confused:
Whats the rugby got to do with Group 4 qualifiers then :confused:
Off with yeah on yer bike there lad :rolleyes:

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Dead right Littlest Hobo. Pronane is talking nonsense.

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Originally Posted by pronane

i might be, but littlest hobo siad that "not a hope in hell" would the french beat us in dublin. thats just a ccok sure statement to make, and a very naive one.

i was saying that the soccer team will probably emulate the french rugby team, and come to landsdone road and have a stormer of a game,and because we will have ( like comments above ) backed ourselves to the last to win or at least draw, and maybe end up with us relying _as usual_ on other results in order to qualify.

how does that mean im talking nonsense JM????

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Your last post was a gross exaggeration. At least you're speaking with a sense of reality now.

I'm hearing you there pronane....but I ain't seeing yeah ;)
All 'a load of twaddle' as the old biddy from the energy saving ad on tv says :D

ANYONE who longs for a more exciting journey to the 2006 world Cup finals than England's steady march could always pretend to be French. Just grab a packet of Gauloises and chain-smoke along with the rest of the supporters of Les Bleus as Raymond Domenech's team stumble along the road to Germany.

As England are roared forward at St James' Park against Azerbaijan tomorrow night, France will line up in Israel consoled only by the knowledge that they are a long way from Paris. Saturday's 0-0 draw against Switzerland was the latest to be concluded with resounding jeers.

Patience had been tested by scoreless bores at home to Israel and Ireland and, although Domenech rued missed chances last Saturday, goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was his best player.

So far in Group Four, France have beaten only Cyprus and the Faroe Isles, toiling against the first and losing Patrick Vieira to a red card against the North Sea fishermen.

No team dominate for ever, but the downturn in France's fortunes after their World and European triumphs in 1998 and 2000 has been more violent than anyone expected with players of the calibre of Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Vieira still there. Yet, if anyone should have seen the decline coming, it is Domenech, given his passion for astrology.

In a recent documentary about the study of star signs, Domenech was introduced as "France coach and Aquarius with Virgo ascendant".

He went on to explain his interest in a manner that, in the context of good results, might be seen merely as eccentric. In the light of his team's problems, it is a miracle that he has not been laughed out of his job. The savaging would have been brutal in England.

Imagine the furore if Sven-Goran Eriksson was wavering between David Beckham and Joe Cole and, after a phone call to Mystic Meg, pronounced that "I have gone with Beckham because I want a Taurus rather than a Scorpio on the right wing."

Among Domenech's revelations on French TV were that Leos make bad defenders. "When I have got a Leo in defence, I've always got my gun ready," he said. "I know he's going to want to show off at one moment or another and cost us."

Domenech denied that star signs were the sole reason for selection but went on to add that "all parameters have to be considered and I have added one by saying there is astrology involved."

Jean-Pierre Escalettes, the president of the French football federation, was required to put a positive spin on his manager's hobbies. "His passion for theatre and astrology means that he has a life outside football and that is for the best," he said. "He is not playing for his future against Switzerland and Israel. The French team needs tranquillity."

If astrology has not become a stick for beating Domenech, it is because the French press and public believe that there are more serious issues at hand, such as the deployment of William Gallas at left-back rather than centre-half.

They know that Domenech's disputes with Robert Pires and Mikael Silvestre, which have meant both players being banished from the squad, are not purely because they are, respectively, a Scorpio and a Leo.

Although some of France's leading players, such as Zinedine Zidane, were due to retire after Euro 2004, others, such as Claude Makelele, are said to have been driven to quit by the manager. A former manager of the U-21s, Domenech is said to treat his players like children.

In the circumstances, it is a miracle that they remain level on points with Israel and Ireland and, with the French federation reluctant wielders of the axe, Domenech is likely to continue at the helm regardless of what happens tomorrow.

However, if they decide to be rid of their manager, the federation should recall how Kelvin MacKenzie, a former Editor of The Sun, is said to have dismissed the paper's astrologer. "As you already know," the letter began, "your contract is terminated." (© The Times, London)

It's a little late for Raymond to be complaining now...

Fran Rooney struck a very hard bargain that night. The FAI hosted the fixtures meeting. It looked at one stage that the FAI wouldn't back down and that FIFA would have to decide the fixtures. I remember how late it was as I was waiting to book flights to France that night before they increased their prices (which I did successfully :D )

Fair play to the FAI muppets. They did very well with the fixture list. The french are under pressure now. We might have slipped up in Israel but they arent doing well at all. I dont think they or the Swiss fancy going to lansdowne.

As that french player said, the next team that looses is effectively out. If france beat Israel on wednesday it will probably make our game against them in June easier. I still think that match will be a draw.

We really need to sink Israel at home.

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Originally Posted by soylent green

Fran Rooney struck a very hard bargain that night. The FAI hosted the fixtures meeting. It looked at one stage that the FAI wouldn't back down and that FIFA would have to decide the fixtures.

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France have created their own problems in this group. At the fixtures meeting in Dublin, they didn't care when they played their opponents. They had the "sure, we have to play them all sometime" attitude. If they didn't like them, they could have broken up the meeting, and let FIFA draw up the list. Fixture lists are important. It was better for us to play them in France last October, when they had several players out and struggling, with a new manager, compared to say, playing them there in October this year, when they would have been on top form, and perhaps already qualified. Vieira said that the Ireland-France game in Dublin would only be important, if "we could all play left-footed". Michel Platini also said the group was easy for them. Well, now it's not easy anymore.

It's France's fault, that they haven't done well in the group. They have Barthez, Vieira, Pires, Henry, and Trezeguet all available for selection, and they still can't score a goal at home, or top the group. Now, they have tricky away games to come, while we have a favourable fixture list. Too bad! They had a catalogue of chances to put away Israel, and Switzerland, but couldn't do it. If they fail to qualify, that's when they will have lost it.

More from the independent today:

WHILE everybody in Ireland has been beating themselves up over the result in Tel Aviv last Saturday night, the French manager Raymond Domenech has confessed that he would love to swap places with Brian Kerr.

Although both teams are level on nine points after five games the French manager has suddenly realised that Brian Kerr is holding all the aces.

In February 2003 it took ten hours of discussion, debate and dispute in the Burlington Hotel before the six teams in Group Four agreed a fixture list.

The then French manager Jacques Santini left early in the afternoon and as he walked through the media scrum gathered in the lobby he shrugged his shoulders with typical Gallic indifference and said that the Irish were terribly belligerent and wouldn't agree to anything.

At that point in time, France had just gone through Group One in their Euro 2004 qualification with eight wins from eight games and were red-hot favourites to retain their European title in Portugal that summer.

As far as Group Four of the World Cup qualifying campaign was concerned it was a taken as read that France would win it and the battle was to see who would finish as runners-up so nobody passed too much attention to Santini's early withdrawal.

Of course, Santini left France during the summer and stayed at White Hart Lane for marginally longer that he lingered at that February fixtures meeting in Dublin while Domenech was handed the job of guiding the former World and European champions to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.

As it turned out, the French were unable to lock Group Four in the same sort of stranglehold that they had their Euro 2004 group in and now the chickens are coming home to roost. After gaining their third scoreless draw in Group Four against Switzerland on Saturday night Domenech sat down to study his country's remaining five fixtures and as his eyes moved up and down the list and he started making notes in the margins of the page he suddenly wished he was Kerr.

Starting tonight, the French face daunting away trips against their three rivals Israel, Ireland and Switzerland while Ireland will be at home to Israel, France and Switzerland.

"For me it is clear the calendar has been badly negotiated," said Domenech before claiming the French delegation had been duped by a tear-jerking Irish story about wanting to play their away games first because of the Lansdowne Road development.

Domenech is also a keen student of astrology and you wonder if he has seen something in alignment of the planets which suggests that it is now time to start making excuses.

Fourteen months ago the FAI delegation could barely contain their joy at having successfully negotiated 95 per cent of what Kerr wanted from the fixtures meeting.

The only failure was not succeeding in getting just one game in June but that was tempered somewhat by the fact that the second match that month is against the Faroe Islands.

Before any qualifying group kicks off every coach will tell you that if their side wins at home and draws away they won't be far away and a study of the last two qualifying campaigns bears that out.

Winning at home and drawing away works out at an average of two points per game and in the nine qualifying groups for the 2002 World Cup finals all the teams that finished first and second achieved or bettered that figured.

However, in the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign two teams won groups with less than the two points per game average while among the ten runners up there were five teams who had failed to make that mark.

Ireland, France, Israel and Switzerland are currently locked in a fascinating battle for the top two spots.

It comes as no surprise to learn that of the eight European groups, Group Four has produced the fewest goals with an average of 2.36 goals per game.

While Ireland's failure to win in Tel Aviv after leading for 86 minutes was a disappointment it does not affect the masterplan which sees Ireland winning their home games and also taking full points from the trips to the Faroes and Cyprus.

If they do that they will finish with 24 points and comfortably qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

The loss of two extra points from the trip to Israel has cost them a bit of security but then, when did any Irish team ever do things the easy way when it came to qualifying for major finals?

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

"They said they needed to play their away matches first because they would be carrying out building work at Lansdowne Road," said Domenech.

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Which is why we agreed to start and finish our campaign with a home match? :confused:

at the time, it was thought that construction would be undergone immediately and we wouldn't be able to play until summer 2005. now it's the opposite, work after the world cup