We’ve all seen the video…you know the one I’m talking about (and if you don’t its below the jump…and it is not a video displaying their awesome football skills).  

Of course I’m referring to this video taken from documentary of Hatem Ben Arfa and Abou Diaby (Arsenal, formerly Auxerre) fighting while training at the Clairefontaine when they were young.

While this video has been discussed on the Offside before by Inara on The Offside-Lyon, I don’t think it has ever been discussed by the people involved (at least that I have read).  Abou recently gave an interview with the Daily Mail where he discussed this fight and his relationship with Hatem.  Here is an excerpt of the article that talks about the video.

His group became the subject of a TV documentary and even now you can watch a 15-year-old Diaby on YouTube trying to tear Hatem Ben Arfa’s head off. ‘We were just kids and it was one of those jokes that backfired,’ he says. ‘But we are great friends now.’

They were even friends back then, and together they watched the Wenger revolution unfold at Arsenal. ‘For all of us that was the dream,’ says Diaby. ‘To be part of a Wenger team, to be part of something this exciting.

I’m not surprised the two are friends now– they were clearly good friends in the documentary.  Glad to know they have kept in touch.

OM-PSG on the Assembly Benches

“Yah!  Always the same ones who are on the bench!”

“On my mother, I am vexed!”

Coming from America, I find it surprising how involved politicians are in sports in France.  In the US, Presidents and politicians may be seen at sporting events and even may comment on their favorite teams, but in general sporting events are not seen as political events.  I’ve learned that this isn’t necessarily the case in France.  This is especially true with the French National team, which has been given the nickname “Black, Blanc, Beur,” and has become a symbol of the new, multicultural France.  Some politicians (Le Pen) even made public speeches on how the the team wasn’t “French enough” after their wins in the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship.

This debate typically flares up whenever France plays a former colony team– such as last year’s match against Tunisia.  At the beginning of the match the Marsellaise (French National Anthem) was booed loudly by sections of the crowd, most of who were French citizens of Magreb descent.  The post-match commentary largely centered not on the win of the French team, but the political implications of the match.  Such booing has come to be used by ethnic-Arab French football fans to protest the racial, social and economic discrimination suffered by those not fortunate enough to be among the stars of Les Bleus. Booing France’s anthem has become a common tactic for drawing attention away from the largely black and Arab faces that defend France’s honor on the soccer field, and back to the communities from which they come in the decrepit housing projects surrounding the Stade de France and other suburbs of Paris.

But the French government pushed back– and hard.  The Minister of Sports (the fact that there is a political office for sports is just incredible to me!) and Sarkozy (French President) were infuriated– and held several crisis meetings about the issue.  Publicly, they were infuriated at the French Football Federation for not shutting down the match immediately.  But Sarkozy was just getting started.  Following the crisis meetings between the President and concerned cabinet members, Health and Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin grimly declared the decision had been taken that “any match during which our national anthem is whistled will be stopped immediately”.

So what does this have to do with OM and this cartoon at Hatem’s expense?

Given how politicized the National team is– I shouldn’t have been surprised when the cancellation of the clash between France’s largest clubs (in terms of fan base) was brought up in the National Assembly this week.  But, given my American tendencies, of course I was.

The questions about the postponement of the OM-PSG match and the fan riots/mayhem were asked by Dominique Tian (representative from Bouches du Rhone, outside of Marseille) to Rama Yade (the Secretary of State for Sport).

Here are the questions:

“- Has the Football League fulfilled its role? The precautionary principle in health as public safety, should it not require the cancellation the match on Friday or no later than Saturday? Is the league’s rule which requires the confirmation of the 3rd player’s diagnosis effective? Is it not, Minister, the responsibility of government to enact a rule common to all sports federations in order to reach an acceptable time frame for cancellation of game? “

The latter responded by stating in part: “Because of the high risk of violence in an event such the OM-PSG game,  the principle of caution should apply. So I asked the sports authorities to be able to identify, anticipate and prevent such situations in the future.  Fans should expect further delays. “

This comic is able to pick at two of the French presses’ favorite targets– the politicians and Hatem Ben Arfa– by mocking the effectiveness and moodiness of both the Assembly members and Hatem….

I tend to be pretty protective of Hatem, but I love these particular artists’ cartoons.  If you have a chance (and you speak a little French), check out their blog here.  They have some other funny ones where Heinze is mocking the threat of Gignac….

Warning:  Any racist comments on this post will be deleted and result in the comments section being locked.  You’ve been warned!

The Classico fixture which was suppose to take place yesterday was postponed due to a Swine Flu Infection that has infected at least 5 members of the PSG team and staff, including Jeremy Clement (left), Ludovic Giuly (centre) and defender Mamadou Sakho (right).  For more information see our earlier coverage here and here.  The match, which was originally given the green light, was called off at the last moment by the French authorities.  Cue, Mayhem.  

Now, the drama continues as the two teams can’t agree on when to play the rescheduled game.  OM want to play the game as soon as possible– Wednesday.  Anigo, OM’s Sporting Director, spoke with OM TV and explained that unless the game is played this week, they will argue that the game shouldn’t be played until February.  The November schedule is too tight already with the European fixtures, the Velodrome is unavailable on the open weekends in December since it is being used for the France-New Zealand game (rugby) and OM’s African players will be away on International duty in January.

To accommodate this request, the Ligue will have to make an exception to their rule which requires that games be made up before the winter break.  Deschamp has been vocal about the Ligue needing to provide greater support for teams competing in Europe– asking Marseille to play the game before the Winter break would force them to play 10 games in 31 days.  In an interview with the press, he has also implied that the cancellation of the game was unfair, hinting at an institutional bias in the French’s Federation for the Parisian club and downplaying the threat of the flu.

PSG have remained firm, insisting that they will not play on Wednesday.  PSG will remain in quarantine for 72 hours and won’t even begin training until Wednesday.  They have argued that asking their players to play so quickly without training and recovering from illness is a serious injury risk.

The date of the match won’t be announced until Thursday– so it looks like OM has lost that fight (not surprising considering the quarantine doesn’t expire until Wednesday).

And how do you think the League will rule?  OM seem to be implying that the league should rule in their favor because it is “not their fault”– but is this really PSG’s fault?  Do you think rushing the make-up fixture fair?  Is Deschamps out of line in downplaying the severity of the illness?

While there have been Didier Deschamps skeptics on The Offside since Day 1, the French media has basically been showering him with love and kisses since the day he was hired. Evey time time they mention him, they immediately reference his Champion’s League and World Cup glory days. The media became infatuated with the idea that Deschamps will be another Blanc– an old France favorite that would become an amazing coach and lead OM back to victory.

Today, however, this has changed. Today’s media headlines are questioning Deschamps ability to both motivate and strategically coach his team.

To be honest, I don’t think DD has helped his case much in the past few days. For example, in the days before OM’s game with Valencienne, DD admitted that he was having trouble getting the team to focus on this week’s Ligue game because they were facing Real on Wednesday. In a different interview with The Phoceen, he remarked that he understood why players didn’t want to give 100% against teams that “look easy on paper” and that is “human” to be thinking of the Real game instead of the Ligue game against the Valenciennes.

After the game in which OM had the chance to lead twice, Deschamps didn’t take any responsibility for the errors. He insisted that he “wouldn’t do anything differently,” and blamed the players for “leaving too much space” and “not doing what he is entitled to expect from his team.” His critics, however, are now pointing to his bizarre tactical decisions. Deschamps wants to compose his team in a 4-3-3 to complement Lucho. To do this, he has pushed Brandao to the left, placed Morientes in the center and made Niang play on the right. Strange decisions since Niang prefers to touch the ball from the left and Brandao likes to move through the middle. These decisions are even more bizarre considering that Ben Arfa, whom Deschamps praised tremendously during the week, was left on the bench. HBA is an amazing right midfielder, and no one understands why the man who DD says “looks like a different player” was left on the bench for so long in the second half.

The papers are now claiming that Deschamps is creating his strategic plan of the 4-3-3 without any regard to the types of players on his team.

These offensive errors are in addition to the sinking defensive ship that was on display this week, which Deschamps did nothing to prevent. For on that, read my post on this week’s biggest tops and flops.

But, while I remain suspicious and cynical of Deschamp’s choices, let’s try to keep things in perspective. This was only our first loss in the Ligue….not too shabby. We remain in 3rd place. Let’s hope that Taiwo and M’bia (both had knocks to their knees) are able to return to the team by Wednesday as planned. With or without them, we have some serious work to do on both sides of the pitch if we don’t want to embarrass ourselves at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.

The Show had to go on
First off Marseille quietly bid farewell to Karim Ziani who decided very early on that he needed to leave Marseille even though he had an incredible second season. The diminutive Algerian signed with German Champions Wolfsburg last Sunday and left Evian Monday morning. Selling for €7 million, it seems like a fair deal but to think that two seasons ago, we were bullied into buying him for eight. But Ziani was good enough this season for us to let him go without it bothering Didier Deschamps too much. It is no secret that the new manager wants our players in the midfield to be a little more powerful, which is why he’s pursuing players like Lucho and Stephane M’bia.

That brings us to the Lorik Cana case. Didier Deschamps never liked him, that’s no secret. When he arrived, he made it clear that three players were his priority, Steve Mandanda, Taye Taiwo and Mamadou Niang. After negotiating with those three, the Ex-France Captain realized how important Cana had become to the fans and the locker room and started backpedalling, saying to him it was evident that Cana would be staying and that he didn’t feel the need to reinforce that opinion. Sure Didier! Now Cana will leave if an offer strong enough comes our way. The player doesn’t feel appreciate and knows he’ll only be fourth choice in the midfield after Cheyrou, Lucho and M’bia if he comes (more on that later). Lorik Cana has been nothing short of exemplary under Fernandez, Emon and Gerets. So Deschamps letting him go is like him letting go of Valbuena, he’s trying to get rid of the players Gerets was using the most. It’s petty but in an atmosphere where the new President’ only hope is that he doesn’t find his office burned down in the morning, Deschamps is pretty much allowed to do as he pleases, and that wouldnt have happened under Diouf.

Anyway, I’m going to say it here once and for all, no matter how great M’bia is, I watched enough Rennes games and personally met the guy to know that he’s playing for M’bia and that’s it. He doesn’t give a shit about where he plays as long as he’s getting paid. That’s the mercenary mentality I don’t like and that’s why I love Lorik Cana, who was always a guarantee in our lineup. I hope I’m wrong on his one but I think we’re just messing up trying to fix something that’s not broke just yet.

I would also like to give credit to Jose Anigo. We all know how close he grew to like Pape Diouf (after an initial period where the two didn’t trust each other) and even linked his future to his President’s. And after hesitating a long time, it took all of Diouf’s clout to convince the Minot to stay at Marseille. And as much as people love to bash on him, he stayed quiet and will work withg Deschamps, a man he loathes. The truth is that for many people in Marseille, and eve me, Deschamps has been flirting way too close with a period of our history that brought us trophies but also hurt the club so bad I’d rather it never happened (okay, not really but you get my point). Anigo said before Deschamps came in that some people soiled the club and left them (the real Marseillais) the pieces to fix while reaping the benefits of the glorious trophy won in 1993. Anyway, Anigo is the club now. No if’s but’s and maybe’s. Anigo has managed to buy impressive players as he was given a little more leeway. We now know that they started talking with Lucho last season and talked when Argentina came in Marseille to play opposite France in February. So much for the Deschamps juice theory.
Anyways, Anigo managed to sell at a great price players that were not wanted in Marseille anymore, Djibril Cissé (€8.5 million to Galatasaray), Ronald Zubar (€4 million to Wolverhampton), Karim Ziani (7.5 to Wolfsburg), Gaël Givet (€4 million to Blackburn), without taking into account a million from both Bayern Munich and Arsenal who both qualified for the next Champions League. And Samassa will be sold to either Grenoble or Montpellier by the beginning of the season. Add that to the €46 million we received in TV rights, Marseille is in great economical shape, and Anigo is making a hell of a lot of smart moves for someone supposed to be incompetent.

And their ambitions have not gone unnoticed as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the man Karim Benzema is replacing in Madrid stopped by on Thursday to negotiate with our staff for an eventual move to Marseille when everyone had him already signing with Stuttgart. And let’s be clear, this is NOT a rumor, it’s and ACTUAL Information. Huntelaar was in Marseille. Now nothing has filtered from the meetings but we know he went to see the Commanderie training grounds (empty but still) and the stadium. Even if I don’t see Huntelaar succeeding in France, It would be an interesting signing.

A Quiet Funeral on Wednesday

This wednesday night, Pape Diouf skipped one of the Directory’s meetings in Paris to take care of the club in Marseille. This created a new polemic, as it was believed that a few members of that directory would be criticizing him for the Ribery incident and his handling of the whole Gerets situation.

Fist of all, with the Ribery situation, an internet website revealed earlier this month that Pape Diouf gave Franck Ribery a 500.000 euros incentive for him to go to the clash with his then employers of Galatasaray and make possible his arrival at Marseille. This alledgedly happened and Ribery allegedly confessed to it in a mailing kept by hi ancient agent, Bruno Heiderscheid.

If we remember correctly, Ribery came back to Marseille after six months in Galatasaray from Metz on reasons that he had never been paid and that there were threats made against him there and a few other things.

Now aside from that affair that never really was proven nor followed, it seems the owner wasn’t pleased with the fact that Erik Gerets left and Labrune was about to make him explain himself. If we remember correctly, the whole Gerets situation is one that was caused by bruised egos and misunderstandings. Gerets himself told since that he was sorry he reacted so quickly.

But let’s be clear, it is Robert Louis-Dreyfus‘ declarations in December in L’Equipe and Le10sport that were the source of it all. When Robert Louis-Dreyfus says “They better win or they’ll all be fired!” (or something tasteful in the lines of that), he creates a problem where there isn’t one. Pape Diouf then believes the owner (who is sick and doesn’t come to Marseille often) doesn’t want Gerets anymore. He then takes it upon himself to go see Spongebob and asks him the permission to re-sign Gerets. Permission granted but by that time, it was already too late. Diouf then immediatly signed Deschamps but everyone agrees Gerets was the most natural fit.

Anyways, this Vincent Labrune chracter wants Diouf‘’s job but as everyone in Marseille puts it, he’ll have to have the b***s to come and sit where Pape Diouf is sitting. With every single problem that comes at you sideways in this city, let’s not forget that you can’t be presiding from Paris and that’s in Marseille that things are and not in the Capitol’s restaurants. Now Labrune will have to come out and talk. Enough with the cowardice.

My personal poition is clear, Pape Diouf i wihout a doubt the best president of the Louis-Dreyfus era and this would be the WORST (and I can’t stress that enough) mistake ever made by this club if the owner let’s himself influenced enough and let’s him go. Pape Diouf is the best President of a football club that isn’t Jean-Michel Aulas (but he’s also an owner) and Marseille is headed to its fourth straight Champion League campaign.

We’ll see how this unfolds in the future but we, here at the Marseille offside, stand 100% behind Pape Diouf, Jose Anigo and Didier Deschamps.

Let’s start with one of our most symbolic alums, Marius Trésor. Marius is one of those players that were touted as the best ever since he was a youngster. The West Indian left his native Guadeloupe as a teenager to come and dominate in Ajaccio in the late sixties as a nineteen year-old (he was born in 1950). It took him all of six months to become the guy to watch. Quickly rising his profile at 20, Marius Trésor started in the French national Team in 1971, at the young age of 21 and never left it. He gained throughout his careers 64 caps, scoring five goals, which at the time was a record.

Most of his international career where he helped the team win a Coupe de France in 1976. He arrived at the Vélodrome in exchange for the young Rolland Courbis who was then headed to Ajaccio. He started at the left-back position in Marseille and the National team as Bernard Bosquier had seniority in both and was central defender. But BB was smart enough to understand quickly that he would lose his spot to the youngster if he didn’t move. Bosquier decided to become a midfielder, letting Marius Trésor for with Jean-Pierre Adams the legendary “Black Guard” (“La Garde Noire”) which stayed on for seven years and led France to the Euros in 1984.

In 1976, he became the first black captain of the National Team and led the Renaissance of the French Team that would go on the be eliminated by Germany in the semi finals of the 1982 World Cup in Spain (That game has been called one of the ten best matches in the history of the sport. 26 years later, it is still legendary. And still one of the rare occasions where Trésor scored). After that fateful match when France lost in the penalties to Germany after having led 3-1 in the first half of the extra-time, Beckenbauer said Trésor was the only other defender that intimidated him.

During his captaincy, France won the Euros and went to the semi finals of the World Cup, not bad. After an injury in the beginning of the 1979 season, Marseille lost their captain too and went to the Second Division. After stating he would want to be back, OM eventually sold him to Claude Baez’s Bordeaux for a huge transfer fee. At 30, which at the time was the moment of retirement for most players, he resurrected his and went on for a few more seasons.

As part of one of the FIFA 100, Marius Trésor is unanimously considered to be one of the best defensive players of all time and certainly will stay in the legend for both France and Marseille. He is at the moment part of the Girondins de Bordeaux staff.

As for Jean-Pierre Adams, after a botched anaesthesia during a knee operation in 1982, he entered a coma. He is still in the same coma, 27 years later, his wife by his side, living off of a settlement and donations from famous footballers including Tresor.

On December 2nd 2008, UEFA’s chief of communication William Gaillard said that it was “facetious to say, as we have heard, that it was the UEFA that asked for the banners to be retired. This is not how we operate and we have no power over the spanish police.” Basically, the spanish policemen took it upon their own to just tear down visiting team’s banners in order to… We actually don’t know why they did it! This banner has been going throughout Europe for twenty-four years and especially In Spain for the last four seasons. It is particularly puzzling to see that these policemen just decided it was their responsibility to take those down and beat up a few supporters in the meantime.

All in all, that night was one of the worst in recent history. Taye Taïwo, Steve Mandanda and another west-indian journalist, Thierry Trésor, of the local LCM news channel were greeted with monkey noises, racists insults and other amabilities spanish stadiae are known for. Mathieu Valbuena even got insulted by Javier Aguirre. But all that would have been fine(well, not fine but you know what I mean) if not for a supporter wrongfully arrested and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for alledgedly pushing one policeman in the back and hitting another one with a chair. Of course there was no proof of this.
Santos Mirasierra (in the yellow hat) is a captain of the Ultras and has been for quite some time. One of the more famous supporters, who holds both french and spanish citizenships, Santos was documented as trying to be an interpret between the police officers and the supporters and is clearly trying on pictures to keep everyone’s heads cool as the Guardia Civile was charging.

NOw this blog has never been a place for something other than football. I decided after much thought not to go after Zenit St Petersburgh when Ronald Zubar received bananas while training on the sidelines and UEFA gave their stadium a slap on the wrist after an entire stadium’s racist chants. UEFA needs to grow some fucking balls. Here is a situation where a man who has travelled throughout Europe for the past 27 years to supports one team and who has been known to keep a cool head in very heated situations. A Marseille supporter, familiar enough with every fan group in this country that even the most anti-marseillais section of the Parc des Princes decided to put up a banner for the man out of his reputation. This man was wrongfully accused and was sentenced based on Televisiopn footage and the testimonial of two policemen trying to cover for their own radical actions while an entire stadium was chanting nazi chants.

UEFA first sentenced the Vincente Calderon to punich those nazis (”Sieg Hitler” is still a nazi chant right?) even though the players had nothing to do with it. But since the UEFA has no balls and michel Platini is still scared to come off as pro-french, they decided not to apply said suspension.
To scapegoat someone is hardly new but this is just a disgrace to that whole country and to their judiciary system. To hear Santos’s family cry out of frustration because of the translators incompetence (As I said before, they hold both citizenships and are bilingual) in translating the different french witnesses was heartbreaking.

The outcry in France has been unanimous as everyone saw the pictures and know OF Santos’s personnality. From Zinédine Zidane («They are retaining him when he hasn’t done anything. What they are reproaching to that man is far from the truth!») to Didier Drogba(“I still don’t understand why Santos has been emprrisonned for this long and most of all how he could have been sentenced to this long a sentence. This is totally disproportionnate! I am totally behind Santos and I want his family anbd him to know that my houghts and prayers are with them!”) and Franck Ribéry (“This is incredibly tough for that man, because he’s invested a whole lot in the club, this was a guy who came with a lot of pleasure in order to root for his own team. I know Marseille and their fans very well and I can assure you that they are real fans. This sanction is tough, three and a half years is a lot. I’ll be the first one to do anything in my power to make sure his sentence is lighter”), to most fan sections across the country, everybody has been sending in their support to the club and the family. Now all we can hope for is that Santos gets his wish and comes back to France for the rest of his sentence.

This affair has been a national matter in Spain where the Prime-Minister came in defense of Madrid’s crowd (the same one that was then sanctionned by UEFA for racism) saying that they “knew” how french fans could be (I didn’t get the memo!) while in France, in an attempt not to create problems with Spain, our ministers said they would not express themselves in the press and let the diplomacy handle those matters. Good job guys, really.

Anyway, at this point, i’m just venting and ranting as I’m particularly frustrated. My goal was to say that the better idea would clearly be to postpone this game somewhere else because let me tell you, Marseillais fans are hurt, outraged and the feeling of injustice is dominant. Nobody would want any retaliation to happen so I believe this Tuesday’s game should not take place.
Peace.

This wouldn’t matter much if there wasn’t the fact that during the month of Ramadan, most practicing muslims fast in order to learn about humility and patience as well as to purify themselves from past sins. So how do players deal with the fact that they train or play games as well as have to follow their religions. Well, Islam is quite flexible with it and players who have activities that do not allow them to do them properly without food can postpone those days until after the month of Ramadan is over and catch up in their own time later.
This is basically what Mamadou Niang does. Talking about his fasting period, the senegalese (? I wonder how he feels about that these days) striker said that “It’s not easy when you have to play every three days just because you actually lose some energy doing so. But when you have a demanding job, you can postpone some fasting days until you are free-er to do so. For example, in my case, I don’t fast the day before nor on matchdays.”

As for Karim Ziani, he doesn’t fast on gamedays either. The algerian international , who is presently preparing a World Cup qualifier against Senegal in Blida said that he’s been knowing his body and didn’t feel the need to tell the doctor because he’s been doing it for years as a professional athlete and hasn’t had any medical problems. Speaking of medical problems, Dr. Christophe Baudot, the club’s lead physician for five seasons now warns that “During a hot period , there’s a high risk of dehydration and thus of diminished performances. So when the training sessions are doubled, one needs to not put his life jeopardy. A few practices have been re-adapted, with the coaches’ permission (past coaches, not Eric Gerets mind you, even though with his experience in Turkey, the belgian technician must be more than familiar with the issue). But if the players hydrate themselves properly and if their meals are well done, they’re going to be more than fine.”

Pape Diouf, himself a non-practicing muslim, raised the issue on monday saying that they trusted their players to do what’s better for them and for their clubs as employees and that with more than ten muslims players on the squad, most of them veterans (the list also includes captain Lorik Cana, Hatem Ben Arfa and Taye Taïwo among them), there has always been an understanding that the club would come first. “It’s hard to pressure anyone or give them direct advice. I trust them. And since the religion is very flexible when you have a demanding job, the players won’t really be affected by that. Being a professional football player, eating and resting are part of the job. We’ve never hasd a problem before, and we’re not gonna have a problem now, trust me”

Bon Apétit