The France national team has long reflected the ethnic diversity of the country. The first black player to play in the national team was Raoul Diagne in 1931. Diagne was the son of the first African elected to the French National Assembly, Blaise Diagne. Seven years later, Diagne played on the 1938 FIFA World Cup team that featured Larbi Benbarek, Abdelkader Ben Bouali, and Michel Brusseaux, who were the first players of North African descent to play for the national team. At the 1958 FIFA World Cup, in which France reached the semi-finals, many sons of immigrants such as Raymond Kopa, Just Fontaine, Roger Piantoni, Maryan Wisnieski and Bernard Chiarelli were integral to the team's success. The tradition has since continued with successful French players such as Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Manuel Amoros, Eric Cantona, Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet, Claude Makélélé, Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa, and Karim Benzema all having either one or both of their parents foreign-born.
During the 1990s, the team was widely celebrated as an example of the modern multicultural French ideal. The 1998 FIFA World Cup-winning team was celebrated and praised for inspiring pride and optimism about the prospects for the "French model" of social integration. Of the 23 players on the team, the squad featured players who could trace their origins to Armenia, Algeria, Guadeloupe, New Caledonia, Argentina, Ghana, Senegal, Italy, French Guyana, Portugal, Spain, Martinique and the Basque Country with the patriarch of the team being Zinédine Zidane, who was born in Marseille to Algerian immigrants.
The multiracial makeup of the team has, at times, provoked controversy. In recent years, critics on the far right of the French political spectrum have taken issue with the proportional under-representation of ethnic white Frenchmen within the team. National Front politician Jean-Marie Le Pen protested in 1998 that the Black, Blanc, Beur team that won the World Cup did not look sufficiently French. In 2002, led by Ghanaian-born Marcel Desailly, the French team unanimously and publicly appealed to the French voting public to reject the presidential candidacy of Le Pen and, instead, return President Jacques Chirac to office. In 2006, Le Pen resumed his criticism charging that coach Raymond Domenech had selected too many black players.In 2005, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut caused controversy by remarking to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite its earlier slogan, "the French national team is in fact black-black-black," and also adding that "France is made fun of all around Europe because of that." He later excused himself from the comments declaring that they were not meant to be offensive.
The Zidane-Materazzi headbutt incident in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final and its aftermath served as a symbol for the larger issue of Europe's struggle to integrate its immigrant population. Even though both players denied racism was involved in the exchange, the international media speculated for days about the presence of a racist element in the provocation from Materazzi observing that the Italian team contained no ethnic minorities.
The national team's overall impact on France's efforts to integrate its minorities and come to terms with its colonial past has been mixed. In 2001, France played a friendly match at the Stade de France, site of its 1998 World Cup triumph, against Algeria. It was the country's first meeting with its former colony, with whom it had fought a war from 1954–1962, and it proved controversial. France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, was booed by Algerian supporters before the game, and following a French goal that made the score 4–1 in the second half, spectators ran onto the field of play, which caused play to be suspended. It was never resumed.
On 28 April 2011, French investigative website Mediapart released a story which claimed that the French Football Federation had been attempting to secretly put in place a race-quota system in order to limit the number of dual-citizenship players in its national academies. Quoting a senior figure in the FFF, the organisation was said to have wanted to set a cap of 30% on the number of players of non-white origin by limiting places in the academies in the 12–13 age bracket.The FFF responded by releasing a public statement on its website denying the report stating "none of its elected bodies has been validated, or even contemplated a policy of quotas for the recruitment of its training centers". The federation also announced that it has authorized a full investigation into the matter and, as a result, suspended National Technical Director François Blaquart pending the outcome of the investigation.
On 29 April, national team manager Laurent Blanc, who, in the report, was claimed to have agreed with the decision to implement the quotas, held a personal press conference at the l'Hôtel Le Régent in Bordeaux, in which he also denied the report declaring that he had "not heard of such a project".On the following day, after Mediapart announced that it had a taped audio recording of the November 2010 meeting, Blanc released a statement on the FFF's website in which he apologized for possible offending comments he made during the meeting, while also declaring he was misquoted and denying he was racist stating "I do not withdraw the remarks I made yesterday. I admit that some terms used during a meeting on a sensitive subject can be ambiguous, out of context, and, if in my case, I've hurt some feelings, I apologize. But being suspected of racism or xenophobia, which I am against all forms of discrimination, I do not support it".
Former national team player Lilian Thuram said of the allegations, "Initially I thought this was a joke. I'm so stunned I don't know what to say", while Patrick Vieira declared that the comments Blanc allegedly made at the meeting made were "serious and scandalous". The French government also gave opinions on the matter. President Nicolas Sarkozy was quoted as being "viscerally opposed to any form of quota", while adding "setting quotas would be the end of the Republic". National Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno echoed the president's sentiments, while also demanding that the FFF "shed light" on a report. Blanc was defended by several former players, most notably his 1998 FIFA World Cup-winning teammates Christophe Dugarry, Bixente Lizarazu, Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane, Marcel Desailly, and Emmanuel Petit, current players, such as current national team captain Alou Diarra, and external sources, which included Pathé Diba, the president of L’Association Soutien aux Handicapés Africains (Association to Support the Disabled in Africa). On 9 May, Blanc gave testimony at a hearing set up by the federation to investigate the quota matter. The next day, the federation cleared him of any wrongdoing.
I am completely with the rest of you on this. A whole hearted yes! Somesh says it best below.
To reiterate, we need to attack the footballing quality problem both from a bottom up and a top down perspective. 1) Improve our talent scouting and training infrastructure to get the best talent young and train them up to international standard, but also, 2) Improve the quality of the national team NOW to attract talent to Indian football. 2 certainly depends on 1 but 1 also depends on 2.
When we won the cricket world cup in 1983 kids stopped playing hockey and football. Case in point: I played both hockey and football for my school team since the 9th standard and for my college team since my 1st year. I'm best at hockey but I think I'm as good at cricket as I am at footer, but I couldn't make it on the cricket team either at school or college ever.
We don't need to win the FIFA world cup for more kids to start playing footer again, mere qualification will do. Getting PIOs into the team won't help us qualify, but it'll help us compete.
3 other points i want to make.
a) The PIOs shouldn't be an automatic shoo in to the team. Make them go through a 30 day camp. That'll give the IPL players a chance to learn from them.
b) Getting PIOs into the team will not close the door for Chhetri and co. They'll be motivated to work harder, get better, take more risks to get noticed, improving I League quality.
c) With an improvement in the team ranking, the door will open for Chhetri and the others to play in the EPL or other leagues (remember, Chhetri could have been in the EPL now if it wasn't for India's ranking). Not only does it help us get past stupid regulations in some of these leagues, we'll play in more high profile tournaments like the Asia Cup and that improves visibility.
I will say WHY NOT? Look at the state of football in our country..who gives a damn except for few of us who seem jobless to others!
I have always advocated for PIO inclusion but against naturalization of Africans. This is the best way to fast-track the growth and popularity of football. Look at how cricket grew in India. Before 1983 World Cup, very few gave it a damn. Everyone likes a hero whom they can imitate/emulate. The ICC World Cup gave them many heroes. And look at it now. Do you think BCCI is very professional? Shit. All looks fine coz they are rich. Look at how they handled IPL. Can you point out one stadium which is as World Class as those in Australia, with all that money?
French national team has more Africans than French. If they can hire foreigners, PIOs are a bit Indians after all. Imagine, we start beating Gulf nations, drawing Saudi and UAE, 0-1, 1-2 loss against Koreans...that would draw millions of EPL-bugged Indians. What a kickstart that would be.
And I see it as a possibility. Last year PM said that NRIs will have voting rights very soon. If they can choose the government, why cant they play football?
gotta say good to see you guys supporting the idea as it has not always got the required backing...i have first hand experience of this, however it has not worked so far for pakistan due to various reasons but im hopeful it can click and few wins will make people take notice. india is desparate for this...
just gotta look at filipines, 30/40places below india few years ago now above india probably...the talent at india's disposal is huge and it could be mixed well..look at the co-hosts of cup of nations..eq guinea they only had 2 home born players in the 23 squad. nobody is saying discard local players but the whole point will be best 11 in the starting 11..that could be 11 overseas if they are good or 11 locals should the talent u get doesnt live upto the billing.
i would happily take netan sansara for pakistan but im gonna struggle with legal process...after all his grandparents were born in the pakistani side of punjab n migrated so makes it complicated process. these guys will bring professionalism, hard work to the team and what they wont bring is politics, ethnicity and regionalism which i believe exists within our sports teams.
somebody like chopra, sansara, rajcomar, aman verma, jasbir singh and few others will add that extra bit to the team... there will be those who will say oh these guys arent indian and this and that... but thats just load of nonsense...
while doing that as somesh said the internal focus should be with league improvement, grassroots, facilities etc so the short, medium and long term objectives are inline to be achieved. these guys can win you the afc challenge cup...filipinoes came close and that too missing 5 of their first team big names...i cant wait to see what they gonna do in next edition....crazy stuff...
nobody is saying discard local players but the whole point will be best 11 in the starting 11..that could be 11 overseas if they are good or 11 locals should the talent u get doesnt live upto the billing.
i absolutely want this only to happen...the best 11players representing our team who got something with our country and are not some naturalized players...as i am thumps up with PIO but not for africans given indian citizenship just to get a good team
gotta say good to see you guys supporting the idea as it has not always got the required backing...i have first hand experience of this, however it has not worked so far for pakistan due to various reasons but im hopeful it can click and few wins will make people take notice. india is desparate for this...
just gotta look at filipines, 30/40places below india few years ago now above india probably...the talent at india's disposal is huge and it could be mixed well..look at the co-hosts of cup of nations..eq guinea they only had 2 home born players in the 23 squad. nobody is saying discard local players but the whole point will be best 11 in the starting 11..that could be 11 overseas if they are good or 11 locals should the talent u get doesnt live upto the billing.
i would happily take netan sansara for pakistan but im gonna struggle with legal process...after all his grandparents were born in the pakistani side of punjab n migrated so makes it complicated process. these guys will bring professionalism, hard work to the team and what they wont bring is politics, ethnicity and regionalism which i believe exists within our sports teams.
somebody like chopra, sansara, rajcomar, aman verma, jasbir singh and few others will add that extra bit to the team... there will be those who will say oh these guys arent indian and this and that... but thats just load of nonsense...
while doing that as somesh said the internal focus should be with league improvement, grassroots, facilities etc so the short, medium and long term objectives are inline to be achieved. these guys can win you the afc challenge cup...filipinoes came close and that too missing 5 of their first team big names...i cant wait to see what they gonna do in next edition....crazy stuff...
Yeah completely agree with you but please don't take away Netan Sansara,wait for few months and hope that AIFF and IFCCI manage to convince our sports minister who is very positive towards Football.
Also Shahnawaz bhai you could actually help AIFF getting some PIO from Europe but that's depends on you if your willing to help India.
ofcourse bro, i want to see this work out for india because it will be greater good for the region and british asians in general as consequence of positive note... i am on good terms with some of the PIO lads and actually encourage them to play for india...even as wild as suggesting giving up british passport...taking up indian and playing in asia lol
helped netan move to cyprus...hes a good kid and will a lot to india if given the chance. you will get some playing for their profile, or their agents doing something special to make their case heard or whatnot but lot of the lads just want to play for their country.
thats what i have experienced with pakistan... we are yet to take off but im sure with money in indian football and the vision and fanbase...the PIO idea will transform football for short and medium term. i also think while they do this legislation for dual nationality...bring back PIO rule into I-league from next season as transition period to see who makes it in i-league but ideally many will play at higher standard abroad...
an ultimate dream of mine would be to host a major tournament jointly..like asia cup or world cup...im not saying in near future but its a dream of mine to work on in my life for later on in this century..30years from now maybe..some might laugh it but its fine with me
I heard of this kid named <b>Rohan Ahluwalia</b>. Seems like a good talent. He is currently at the New York Red Bulls U18 Academy but he is so far making a huge impact.
He is also on radar to play for Arsenal FC next season.
I heard of this kid named <b>Rohan Ahluwalia</b>. Seems like a good talent. He is currently at the New York Red Bulls U18 Academy but he is so far making a huge impact.
He is also on radar to play for Arsenal FC next season.
But this guy is supposed to play for US someday :P
Btw, why don't you try for Under 16 team of India.
I heard of this kid named <b>Rohan Ahluwalia</b>. Seems like a good talent. He is currently at the New York Red Bulls U18 Academy but he is so far making a huge impact.
He is also on radar to play for Arsenal FC next season.
Comments
The France national team has long reflected the ethnic diversity of the country. The first black player to play in the national team was Raoul Diagne in 1931. Diagne was the son of the first African elected to the French National Assembly, Blaise Diagne. Seven years later, Diagne played on the 1938 FIFA World Cup team that featured Larbi Benbarek, Abdelkader Ben Bouali, and Michel Brusseaux, who were the first players of North African descent to play for the national team. At the 1958 FIFA World Cup, in which France reached the semi-finals, many sons of immigrants such as Raymond Kopa, Just Fontaine, Roger Piantoni, Maryan Wisnieski and Bernard Chiarelli were integral to the team's success. The tradition has since continued with successful French players such as Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Manuel Amoros, Eric Cantona, Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet, Claude Makélélé, Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa, and Karim Benzema all having either one or both of their parents foreign-born.
During the 1990s, the team was widely celebrated as an example of the modern multicultural French ideal. The 1998 FIFA World Cup-winning team was celebrated and praised for inspiring pride and optimism about the prospects for the "French model" of social integration. Of the 23 players on the team, the squad featured players who could trace their origins to Armenia, Algeria, Guadeloupe, New Caledonia, Argentina, Ghana, Senegal, Italy, French Guyana, Portugal, Spain, Martinique and the Basque Country with the patriarch of the team being Zinédine Zidane, who was born in Marseille to Algerian immigrants.
The multiracial makeup of the team has, at times, provoked controversy. In recent years, critics on the far right of the French political spectrum have taken issue with the proportional under-representation of ethnic white Frenchmen within the team. National Front politician Jean-Marie Le Pen protested in 1998 that the Black, Blanc, Beur team that won the World Cup did not look sufficiently French. In 2002, led by Ghanaian-born Marcel Desailly, the French team unanimously and publicly appealed to the French voting public to reject the presidential candidacy of Le Pen and, instead, return President Jacques Chirac to office. In 2006, Le Pen resumed his criticism charging that coach Raymond Domenech had selected too many black players.In 2005, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut caused controversy by remarking to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite its earlier slogan, "the French national team is in fact black-black-black," and also adding that "France is made fun of all around Europe because of that." He later excused himself from the comments declaring that they were not meant to be offensive.
The Zidane-Materazzi headbutt incident in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final and its aftermath served as a symbol for the larger issue of Europe's struggle to integrate its immigrant population. Even though both players denied racism was involved in the exchange, the international media speculated for days about the presence of a racist element in the provocation from Materazzi observing that the Italian team contained no ethnic minorities.
The national team's overall impact on France's efforts to integrate its minorities and come to terms with its colonial past has been mixed. In 2001, France played a friendly match at the Stade de France, site of its 1998 World Cup triumph, against Algeria. It was the country's first meeting with its former colony, with whom it had fought a war from 1954–1962, and it proved controversial. France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, was booed by Algerian supporters before the game, and following a French goal that made the score 4–1 in the second half, spectators ran onto the field of play, which caused play to be suspended. It was never resumed.
On 28 April 2011, French investigative website Mediapart released a story which claimed that the French Football Federation had been attempting to secretly put in place a race-quota system in order to limit the number of dual-citizenship players in its national academies. Quoting a senior figure in the FFF, the organisation was said to have wanted to set a cap of 30% on the number of players of non-white origin by limiting places in the academies in the 12–13 age bracket.The FFF responded by releasing a public statement on its website denying the report stating "none of its elected bodies has been validated, or even contemplated a policy of quotas for the recruitment of its training centers". The federation also announced that it has authorized a full investigation into the matter and, as a result, suspended National Technical Director François Blaquart pending the outcome of the investigation.
On 29 April, national team manager Laurent Blanc, who, in the report, was claimed to have agreed with the decision to implement the quotas, held a personal press conference at the l'Hôtel Le Régent in Bordeaux, in which he also denied the report declaring that he had "not heard of such a project".On the following day, after Mediapart announced that it had a taped audio recording of the November 2010 meeting, Blanc released a statement on the FFF's website in which he apologized for possible offending comments he made during the meeting, while also declaring he was misquoted and denying he was racist stating "I do not withdraw the remarks I made yesterday. I admit that some terms used during a meeting on a sensitive subject can be ambiguous, out of context, and, if in my case, I've hurt some feelings, I apologize. But being suspected of racism or xenophobia, which I am against all forms of discrimination, I do not support it".
Former national team player Lilian Thuram said of the allegations, "Initially I thought this was a joke. I'm so stunned I don't know what to say", while Patrick Vieira declared that the comments Blanc allegedly made at the meeting made were "serious and scandalous". The French government also gave opinions on the matter. President Nicolas Sarkozy was quoted as being "viscerally opposed to any form of quota", while adding "setting quotas would be the end of the Republic". National Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno echoed the president's sentiments, while also demanding that the FFF "shed light" on a report. Blanc was defended by several former players, most notably his 1998 FIFA World Cup-winning teammates Christophe Dugarry, Bixente Lizarazu, Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane, Marcel Desailly, and Emmanuel Petit, current players, such as current national team captain Alou Diarra, and external sources, which included Pathé Diba, the president of L’Association Soutien aux Handicapés Africains (Association to Support the Disabled in Africa). On 9 May, Blanc gave testimony at a hearing set up by the federation to investigate the quota matter. The next day, the federation cleared him of any wrongdoing.
source:-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_national_football_team
To reiterate, we need to attack the footballing quality problem both from a bottom up and a top down perspective. 1) Improve our talent scouting and training infrastructure to get the best talent young and train them up to international standard, but also, 2) Improve the quality of the national team NOW to attract talent to Indian football. 2 certainly depends on 1 but 1 also depends on 2.
When we won the cricket world cup in 1983 kids stopped playing hockey and football. Case in point: I played both hockey and football for my school team since the 9th standard and for my college team since my 1st year. I'm best at hockey but I think I'm as good at cricket as I am at footer, but I couldn't make it on the cricket team either at school or college ever.
We don't need to win the FIFA world cup for more kids to start playing footer again, mere qualification will do. Getting PIOs into the team won't help us qualify, but it'll help us compete.
3 other points i want to make.
a) The PIOs shouldn't be an automatic shoo in to the team. Make them go through a 30 day camp. That'll give the IPL players a chance to learn from them.
b) Getting PIOs into the team will not close the door for Chhetri and co. They'll be motivated to work harder, get better, take more risks to get noticed, improving I League quality.
c) With an improvement in the team ranking, the door will open for Chhetri and the others to play in the EPL or other leagues (remember, Chhetri could have been in the EPL now if it wasn't for India's ranking). Not only does it help us get past stupid regulations in some of these leagues, we'll play in more high profile tournaments like the Asia Cup and that improves visibility.
just gotta look at filipines, 30/40places below india few years ago now above india probably...the talent at india's disposal is huge and it could be mixed well..look at the co-hosts of cup of nations..eq guinea they only had 2 home born players in the 23 squad. nobody is saying discard local players but the whole point will be best 11 in the starting 11..that could be 11 overseas if they are good or 11 locals should the talent u get doesnt live upto the billing.
i would happily take netan sansara for pakistan but im gonna struggle with legal process...after all his grandparents were born in the pakistani side of punjab n migrated so makes it complicated process. these guys will bring professionalism, hard work to the team and what they wont bring is politics, ethnicity and regionalism which i believe exists within our sports teams.
somebody like chopra, sansara, rajcomar, aman verma, jasbir singh and few others will add that extra bit to the team... there will be those who will say oh these guys arent indian and this and that... but thats just load of nonsense...
while doing that as somesh said the internal focus should be with league improvement, grassroots, facilities etc so the short, medium and long term objectives are inline to be achieved. these guys can win you the afc challenge cup...filipinoes came close and that too missing 5 of their first team big names...i cant wait to see what they gonna do in next edition....crazy stuff...
Yeah completely agree with you but please don't take away Netan Sansara,wait for few months and hope that AIFF and IFCCI manage to convince our sports minister who is very positive towards Football.
Also Shahnawaz bhai you could actually help AIFF getting some PIO from Europe but that's depends on you if your willing to help India.
helped netan move to cyprus...hes a good kid and will a lot to india if given the chance. you will get some playing for their profile, or their agents doing something special to make their case heard or whatnot but lot of the lads just want to play for their country.
thats what i have experienced with pakistan... we are yet to take off but im sure with money in indian football and the vision and fanbase...the PIO idea will transform football for short and medium term. i also think while they do this legislation for dual nationality...bring back PIO rule into I-league from next season as transition period to see who makes it in i-league but ideally many will play at higher standard abroad...
an ultimate dream of mine would be to host a major tournament jointly..like asia cup or world cup...im not saying in near future but its a dream of mine to work on in my life for later on in this century..30years from now maybe..some might laugh it but its fine with me
I heard of this kid named <b>Rohan Ahluwalia</b>. Seems like a good talent. He is currently at the New York Red Bulls U18 Academy but he is so far making a huge impact.
He is also on radar to play for Arsenal FC next season.
Btw, why don't you try for Under 16 team of India.