France Team Stuck in Norway, Game May be Delayed

It’s kind of hard to play a football game when one of the teams is stuck in another country. That may be the case tomorrow, when France is scheduled to play in the Faroe Islands.

According to l’Equipe, the France team was unexpectedly required to spend the night in Bergen, Norway, when their plane couldn’t land in Thorshaven, Feroe Islands due to wind and fog. The referees and UEFA representatives are also not on site yet. Now everybody is hoping to get to Thorshaven on Saturday, either by plane or by a five-hour ferry ride.

This means that there’s a good chance the game will be rescheduled:

On Sunday if the French manage to reach [the Faroe Islands] on Saturday; [or] at a later date if the weather continues to prevent their arrival. The French delegation will decide tonight on a possible request for postponement.

This would suck on several levels. First off, a five-hour ferry ride in wind and fog isn’t exactly conducive to stellar play. And if they don’t manage to play this weekend, it means Raymond won’t be able to make the necessary tweaks to his lineup before the more challenging Lithuania game on Wednesday. Or, if the game is played on Sunday, it would put the two games a day closer together, which makes it harder on the players — particularly the older ones and anybody coming back from injury.

A Sunday game would also be problematic for the Faroe team, because they’re currently scheduled to fly out on Sunday to get ready for their mid-week game in Ukraine. The Faroe Islands coach is not happy with this turn of events, saying that most teams arrive on-site three days in advance. He’s claiming that the France team have exhibited “professional misconduct” by not arriving one day before the match in accordance with the UEFA rules.

Oy. (So why didn’t France arrive earlier? Anybody?)