World Cup 2010

World Cup Winner Frank Leboeuf Lambasts France Coach Raymond Domenech

The former Chelsea star has questioned why the national team coach was granted a new deal in the summer and has said he didn’t even bother to watch Saturday’s win over Lithuania.

Mar 30, 2009 1:14:59 PM

Frank Leboeuf, Richard Gough, Brian Dunseth, Hollywood United, GrassrootSoccer charity match (Goal.com)

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Frank Leboeuf, Richard Gough, Brian Dunseth, Hollywood United, GrassrootSoccer charity match (Goal.com)

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Raymond Domenech

In the aftermath of Saturday’s 1-0 World Cup qualifying success over Lithuania, Frank Leboeuf (pictured left) has been quick to criticise a French team that he feels is being isolated from its supporters by the game's key figures in L'Hexagone.

Leboeuf reached the pinnacle of the footballing game when he helped France lift the World Cup in 1998. Little over a decade on and les Bleus are struggling to form a cohesive unit and are anything but certainties to reach the 2010 edition of the same competition. There is, in the former Chelsea star’s eyes, only one man to blame for that: national team coach Raymond Domenech.

France endured a torrid Euro2008 campaign, and Leboeuf has hinted that all the warning signs were there that for fans of les Bleus. He is incredulous to the fact that the FFF (Federation Francaise de Football) chose to renew Domenech’s contract renewed after such a debacle.

“I was not happy with the decisions made last summer and things have not changed,” he bemoaned to L’Equipe while playing a futsal tournament in Bercy on Sunday.

Indeed, Leboeuf blamed the national team coach for causing a rift between the team and the supporters, who have been criticised by players such as Patrice Evra for being too quick to jeer their countrymen. “I didn’t watch France play Lithuania,” the 50-time capped player explained. “I share the dislike of the public towards the French team. I am hurt to see where they are.

“[World Cup winning coach] Aime Jaquet had succeeded in creating a French team. Now it’s just a selection of France.”

Should France fail to qualify for South Africa 2010 – a possibility that does not look entirely implausible at the present time – the former Chelsea centre-back believes that wholesale changes should be made to French football. “If we do not qualifying for the 2010 World Cup then it is not just Raymond Domenech who must jump, however, the whole organisation,” he declared. “In 1998 there was harmony with the first. In just five years everything had exploded.”

The French media have speculated how the national team will be received on Wednesday, when they face Lithuania in a rematch at the Stade de France. Many pundits believe that the impatient home crowd could be quick to turn on les Bleus, who need a win to maintain pressure on Serbia at the top of qualifying Group 7.

Robin Bairner, Goal.com

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