In all fairness, France’s performance & result in World Cup 2010 was not the worst. At least they managed to score one goal this time unlike World Cup 2002 when they were eliminated from the first round without scoring any goals. However, when performance & results are aside, everything else related to France’s experience in World Cup 2010 was indeed the worst in history.

Raymond Domenech took over in 2004, and since then he succeeded to raise eyebrows with his continuous unexplainable squad selection. It all started when he admitted his lack of confidence to Scorpios, which effected prolific players like Pires. His bizarre decisions went further with selections like Chimponda and Barthez over Coupet. The biggest question mark was snubbing “Hope of the Year” Philippe Mexes, who has been A.S. Roma’s first defending choice since 2000!

After struggling to qualify for World Cup 2010, he barely managed to lead “Les Bleus” to South Africa with shambolic hand ball assist from Thierry Henry against Republic of Ireland in the play offs. He dropped three amazing attacking talents, which seemed to be crucial because France lacked creativity and goal threats. These players are Benzeman, Ben Arfa, & Samir Nasry. They all come from Arabic roots, which dropped the shadow of racism on the astrological manager!

On the other hand, the French Football Federation FFF had a major part in the big fall. As their announcement to replace Domenech with Laurent Blanc a month before the World Cup starts left the players free to express their frustration towards the will-be-sacked boss. The FFF should have delayed the announcement till after the World Cup, OR -as I personally believe- should have sacked Domenech right after the play offs and installed Laurent Blanc immediately.

Now, the after math seems more complicated. As the big names failed to perform, and the promising talents lost confidence. Blanc will have the impossible mission to restore the pride of the national team of his country.