Comments on: Patrice Evra is Unhappy with French Fans

By: Foreverzidane

Foreverzidane — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:07:39 +0000

Absolutely agree with Evra, specially when playing at Stade de France, as I attended the qualifier against Serbia. I am not a native of France but to those who have been born there don’t you have an ounce of pride? Regardless of the money hungry villains they maybe as the rest of us are so pious, wouldn’t you like to see Les Bleus succeed? Do you think for a second that in Buenos Aires a giant flag of Zidane would survive till the end of the match? I highly doubt it! It’s better not to show up at all than be a making fools of yourselves cheering “ole” for each passing plays of the opposition.
You not only become annoying to Les Bleus but a joke to the world.
Discuss POLITICS or what “Carla was wearing” in the stands instead, your favorite subjects,… non? I hope that this team under Domenech will make it to the world cup and prove all you naysayers wrong!

By: glatisant

glatisant — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:42:13 +0000

Why shouldn’t the French team be booed of the pitch at Velodrome (or anywhere in France) after losing 2-0 and offering a listless display of football?

It’s not a question of “should” or not, but what the booing is meant to do and whether it’s effective.
If the goal is to vent frustration, sure. If it’s to impact the way the team is playing (say five minutes into a game, or in the midst of a tense qualification campaign), I’m not sure it’s working here.

I don’t necessarily have an objection to booing on a philosophical level, just a pragmatic one in this case.

By: Weston

Weston — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:10:15 +0000

Domenech used to look like borat and took away the one good thing about France: trezeguet.

By: jeanpierre

jeanpierre — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:01:54 +0000

@ aditya: because you support your badplaying team as a handicapped friend through thick and thin especially when they are bad to let them play less bad *nodding sagely*

By: Aditya

Aditya — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:50:17 +0000

Why shouldn’t the French team be booed of the pitch at Velodrome (or anywhere in France) after losing 2-0 and offering a listless display of football?

By: Talia

Talia — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:27:44 +0000

@ Sandra – we miss you so much over at LJ! don’t you like us anymore? we wish you would visit or say hello. It’s been ages!

lots of love and hugs all around!

By: jeanpierre

jeanpierre — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:31:56 +0000

im the perfect supporter evra

By: Steven

Steven — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:54:38 +0000

Well played, M-O.

But I think you answered your own question.

People, countries, cultures are far too complex to reduce to one single identity. We are and have been for some time a mix of different influences, backgrounds, etc.

Barack Obama is the most obvious contemporary example of this.

One of things that unites us with all our distinct multi-lingual/cultural/racial backgrounds–at least in Western democracies–1s a shared, legally-based conception of citizenship, which transcends the specificities of our individual backgrounds.

And of course France–as you so rightly note–has helped lead the way in this regard …

By: Michel-Olivier

Michel-Olivier — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:36:30 +0000

@ 9 champs leagues
france = caledonian, basque, reunionnais, breton, mahoran, catalan, corsican, occitan, french polynesian, french antillean, alsatian……….

“La France est une Republique indivisible, laique, démocratique et sociale. Elle assure l’égalite devant la loi de tous les citoyens sans distinction d’origine, de race ou de religion. Elle respecte toutes les croyances. Son organisation est décentralisee.”(Constitution)

@ steven
zidane, nasri, and benzema are african, are they black?

By: Steven

Steven — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:01:42 +0000

Its not that simple 9CL … as you probably need reminding there were great celebrations throughout France–the largest since liberation from the Nazis–when the ‘98 team won the WC.

One of the great things about that team was its composition of players from so many ethnic identities. In that sense it more accurately represents what it means to live in a contemporary society almost anywhere in the West today …. including France.

And if today’s team is mostly black–so what? It only shows that professional sports is at its best an arena of merit rather than misplaced racial identity.

Incidently, the word “gallic” – your polite eumphemism for “white” – is an adjective pertaining to either ancient Gaul or something French in the most general sense. It’s not a signifier of an imagined purely race-based cultural identity.