From our Special Envoy in Doha,
Strange feeling that this lack of enthusiasm which crosses us at the time of writing these lines, a few hours however from a quarter-final of the World Cup enticing to the possible. On the one hand a team from France and its king Kylian, already ready to make us dream again, only four years after the bamboche of Russia. On the other, England for a long time boring like the rain to watch but which in recent years has finally decided to dress up for the ball. Could it be the fatigue that is starting to be felt after an unprepared World Cup, stalled in the middle of the season? A little, sure. Could it also be the fault of this interminable wait, these six days of emptiness which separated the qualifying against Poland from the shock of Saturday? Possible too.
But we must above all see something deeper in it, as the inevitable consequence of a Franco-English rivalry lacking strong historical markers, such as the France-RFA of 82 in Seville or the France-Italy of 2006 in Berlin. Cut-throat, intense, unbreathable matches that set a rivalry in stone for centuries and centuries. Against the English, none of that. Finally, we have to appeal more to our memories of history lessons in college and go back to Joan of Arc or that vile Admiral Nelson to find good reasons for wanting to do battle with the “perfidious Albion”. We salute all the same the good effort of the Sun, which bled itself Friday to finance a resounding advertising campaign in the streets of Paris and to lodge us, our sons and our companions, under our windows. These people have never heard of karma or what?
Football and rugby are not in the same category
When asked what the Franco-English rivalry meant to him, Youssouf Fofana replies that it is above all “geographical”. “It’s a bit like our neighbours,” he adds. What enthusiasm! Luckily Darren Tulett is here to pimp a bit of all that. “The last two memories of confrontation between our two countries in the World Cup, it had turned out rather well for us, likes to recall the English journalist from beIN Sport, from Doha. In 1982 we won 3-1, in 1966 we won 2-0 and we won the tournament behind, maybe that’s a good sign for England. At the same time you can tell me that in 1966 no one was alive and that since then you have won the World Cup twice. It’s true. Especially since these matches had taken place in the group stage, the stakes were not the same”.
If “frogs” and “rosbifs” like to titillate each other culturally, unfortunately this has never really won the football field. Unlike the Crunch in rugby, which stirs up passions and awakens in us an irrepressible craving for fluff. Asked about this point, the former player of the XV of France Philippe Bernat-Salles can only nod his head. “The rivalry in football is clearly not as intense as in rugby. For us, French, when the Crunch arrives during the Six Nations Tournament, it’s always a special moment. We always want to beat them, it’s part of the history of our sport. An antagonism forged with spitting, insults, memorable fights and fantastic comebacks, during the 109 clashes between the two countries for more than a century. Besides, football clearly does not box in the same category.
But hey, we take it anyway. “Whatever the sport, a France-England remains a France-England. There is always a particular scent, ”recalls the former Biarritz Olympique winger. And if this round ball poster is less rated than the oval, it has at least for it the preciousness of rarity in recent years. This is what makes Darren Tulett say that this France-England on Saturday has more flavor than we want to say. “We’re so used to playing each other during the Six Nations tournament that it’s not even an event anymore, it’s more of a habit, so obviously it moves us a little less. While there, already it’s rare that we meet in the World Cup, but it’s downright the first time that we’re going to play each other in a knockout match. The hairs stand on end, the argument has its little effect.
The Franco-British Entente Cordiale
Basically, if this opposition does not ignite in us the same flame as in the face of the Italians, the Spaniards or the Germans, whom we love to hate as much as they hate us, the time of 90 or 120 minutes is also because the history of Franco-English football is more, as explained on the L’Equipe channel by sports historian François Da Rocha Carneiro, of the “cordial understanding” dear to diplomatic relations between our two countries. “There is the idea of a friendship between these two countries at key moments in modern history. One can think in particular of 1945, when the war has just ended in Europe: the first match of the Blues, it is symbolically in England that they play it, in the legendary Wembley stadium, in front of 80,000 people. England, while being a privileged adversary, the one we have encountered the most in our history, is not an enemy, it never manages to be an enemy.
Coincidence of the great (and sad) story, it is still at Wembley that the Blues travel in 2015 a few days after the attacks of November 13th. How can we forget the welcome reserved by the English public, in a Wembley stadium illuminated in the colors of the tricolor flag, with this Marseillaise sung with great heart by the 80,000 spectators. “I was at the stadium that night, it was a moment of incredible strength, explains Darren Tulett. We tell ourselves that despite all the bickering, we are capable of loving each other and uniting in serious moments. I get chills just thinking about it. “Two years later, they were hugged back in a stadium in France in the colors of the English flag, ten days after new terrorist attacks in London.
From Sympathy to Compassion
Seen from France, the Three Lions finally inspire a kind of sympathy, not to say compassion, which is very much due to their international level which we will describe as weaklings at best over the past thirty years. As was their case with us at the end of the 1970s, if we are to believe our English colleague from beIN. “When I was little, we used to have sympathy for you because you played well but never won, so it was a fairly easy position for us. Afterwards, it became more complicated from 98 (laughs)”. For the last somewhat memorable memories in official competitions (and not too distant in time), let us quote this France-England at Euro 2004 which will see the Blues win on two kicks from Zidane in the stoppages of game after being down 1-0 for a long time. A nightmarish memory for the former L’Equipe du Dimanche on Canal+.
“I was in Lisbon that evening and, in addition to the totally undeserved victory for the French, I found myself translating Jacques Santini at a press conference since there was no official translator, he recalls not without difficulty. Since I was in the front row and he knew me a little, he asked me to show on stage. I have just suffered a horrible defeat against the Blues and I also have to express Santini’s joy in front of the press all over the world! Not to mention that in the mixed zone all the French players came to me. It was a horrible evening that I never want to experience again. If we don’t wish any of this to the most French of British journalists, let’s just hope that this match gives birth to an unforgettable scenario that we will tell our grandchildren by the fireside on evenings of power cuts, for that finally a Franco-English rivalry worthy of the name is born. It’s never too late for this kind of pleasure.