Comments on: Italy v France: Oh, it is ON!

By: Domenech Does Not Approve - Europe - The Offside - Soccer News and Opinion from leagues around the world

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:00:30 +0000

[...] you thought it was only everything about Italy that roused Raymond Domenech to do a bit of rabble rousing, think again. The France [...]

By: Pip's

Pip's — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:27:56 +0000

I think Ray’s a legend. He’s made a fan of me!

By: Peter Vescera

Peter Vescera — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:32:53 +0000

Typical French attitude. This coach, Domenech, is a real idiot. He is making excuses for his team losing before the game is played. He figures, if France wins then they overcame the cheating. If France loses, then they lost unfairly. I’m looking forward to a great game. Both teams are world-class. I’m rooting for Italy but want to see a close well played game.
Domenech, go back to bad french acting….

By: Of Coaches Suspended - Catania - The Offside - Serie A Italian Football Blog

Of Coaches Suspended - Catania - The Offside - Serie A Italian Football Blog — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:00:40 +0000

[...] into a suspension for his team’s upcoming match against the Azzurri. After very specifically accusing Italy of buying the referees for an Olympic qualifier against France in 2000, he was sadly unable to come up with the [...]

By: Francois

Francois — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:11:06 +0000

I understand how the penalty that Italy received against Australia may have been highly debated but I can say honestly that the penalties that we had been rewarded were also highly dubious. The fact remains every team is subject to good and bad calls but Italy is NOT allowed to get good calls for some reason. It’s black and white with Italy in the soccer world, If they get a bad call it’s just if they get a good call the ref has been payed off while France always gets the benefit of the doubt in these situations. You’re in a tough spot if you lose you will be ridiculed by French fans because we are the best in the world at it and if you win you will still be ridiculed by French fans because many of us are not graceful in defeat especially our coach. So I just think he’s setting up the excuse beforehand in case we lose much the way Oliver Kahn did in 2002 before Germany played Korea..very smart tactic but very dangerous. I don’t think there has ever been any concrete evidence of match-fixing ever and believe me it would be hard to hide a rigged match since you would need to pay off more than a ref to fix a match. you would also have to pay off certain individuals of the opposing team to help throw the match, a ref alone is not a match winning certainty. So nice try Raymond.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:21:11 +0000

Paolo is completely right. And remember this isn’t Zidane’s first time to lose his temper and headbutt someone. You’ve got to admit that Italy was playing better than France. And I’ve got to say that France is a good team, I’m not going to say they aren’t, but Italy has a better team and the stars on their jerseys prove it. Hey, Luca Toni even scored, but it was nullified. De Rossi was in the offside position, but not by a lot. And the only goal that France could score was a penalty. Just get over that fact that they lost, I’m sure there’ll be other chances for France to win a World Cup.

By: sofia

sofia — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:02:03 +0000

paolo is right. the australians lost fair and square we were the better team and people need to get over it. italy is contantly being questioned and discredited because of assholes like Luciano Moggi and being a Juve fan i am definately not proud of that. however, zidane chose his own fate. i play soccer and its non-competitive soccer and i hear A LOT of trash talking on the field but i dont turn around and headbutt anyone. his actions will never be justified no matter what materrazzi said to him. the italian teams club and national are always having to prove themselves to the world because everyone thinks we are cheats but really get over the fact that our team is good. i dont mean to sound rude but italy has a history of great football dating back to the 1930’s. we have won the world cup 4 times once less then brasil and no one ever accuses brasil of cheating. and if you wanna talk about italian math fixing but i dont know if you have heard but portugal’s club teams i am not sure which ones but they are being accused of match fixing now too but i bet you their national team wont be questioned because for some reason that i cant understand everyone hates italy. zidane should be ashamed of his actions which were uncalled for and idiotic. i think that no matter what happens italy will always be forced to prove themselves a really good side because the rest of the world thinks we are cheats. i dont mind honestly i just wish it would stop because its childish and stupid and completely undeserving seeing as the match fixing that went on in italy was at the club level and the most of the people involved arent part of football anymore….

By: Paolo

Paolo — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:55:24 +0000

Dominique, what judge or court in any major footballing nation would ever take the risk to put any major club out of business? Its always about the Italians with everyone. Every league is influenced by corruption which I will not get into detail about. we fully understand how important football is to people in Italy. I have sat in the stadiums there, and have tons of family there. I know what it means to the supporters.

Everyone is always quick to point the finger but never really understands, knows or is willing to admit what goes on in other Associations. Its always the Italians.

Never mind Spike Lee’s conspiacy theories, he has enough to worry about with the Knicks. Zidane controls his own actions. A set up? Geez, I am just not going to say anything…..

No one here hates anyone else, its just very annoying that every time an Italian team does well at an International competiton, there is so much effort that goes into discrediting them… There is no proof that an Italian Team, national or club, has ever cheated to win anything in International play. There was that whole calciopoli thing that was the doing of a few corrupt individuals, but why does the national team have to get attacked all the time?

By: Paolo

Paolo — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:39:39 +0000

No Problem Sofia! I can understand why Australians would be upset about losing but its no one’s problem that they do not understand why the penalty was called or how they thought they would eventually win a game they were getting schooled in. They lost fair and square. And if you look at the highlight, Materazzi got a red card in that game for Tackling Zambrotta… A yellow sure but not a stright red for that… you hear us complain?

It gets very annoying that everytime an Italian team does well at International competitions, whether it be the National Team or a Club Team, people always try to discredit them. Its no fluke to be that good that often. Italy’s perfromance was World Class at the World Cup, nothing was easy for them, they simply played the best football and won.

By: sofia

sofia — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:10:43 +0000

paolo that was the greatest thing i have read all day! hahaha i have been trying to explain exactly that to people since that game happened and no one believes me so thank you very much for that.