An indestructible goalkeeper for the French team, Fabien Barthez saw his career threatened after insulting and spitting on a referee on February 12, 2005, while he was playing for Olympique de Marseille.
It was only a friendly match but the meeting between Olympique de Marseille and WAC Casablanca almost hastened the end of Fabien Barthez’s international career. The fault lies in a high-tension match and above all in an incredible blood-cut by the Olympian goalkeeper, guilty of having insulted and spat on the match referee, Mr. Abdellah El Achiri.
On appeal, the French Football Federation was going to impose no less than eight months of suspension on the 1998 world champion, this sanction being able to be lifted after six months “on the condition that he completes, before this date, ten activities of general interest for the benefit of amateur football. » The French team was no less deprived of its emblematic goalkeeper during its last qualifying matches for the 2006 World Cup while qualification seemed to be in doubt and elimination would spell the end of the international career for Fabien Barthez but also Zinedine Zidane.
“I don’t regret, we are men”
On April 22, the native of Lavelanet defended himself before the FFF disciplinary committee. “ The referee’s report says that Fabien spat in his face. He didn’t spit in her face at all! This is not the fault we saw. It’s on the chest. There was no spitting in the face, but spitting on an official », had agreed Jean Mazzella, president of the FFF disciplinary committee. Before the members of the commission, the former Monegasque had claimed to be aware ofto have “do something stupid”offering “some apologies”. “They seem sincere to me. It’s in the tradition of Fabien Barthez,” commented Jean Mazzella. Enough to be worth to him in the first instance a six-month suspension, three of which were suspended, which provoked the indignation of the Minister of Sports, Jean-François Lamour.
“ I don’t know if this leniency is adapted to the reality of what happens every day on all grounds. It’s not about making anyone a scapegoat, but the symbol, whether we like it or not, is strong,” he had whispered. And this leniency was all the worse because a month after the events, the French goalkeeper had expressed no remorse. “No one is sick, there is no death. We’re making a big fuss, I don’t see why”he said, adding: “I have no regrets, we are men, and, as they say, we have it between our legs. »
Fabien Barthez was also able to count on the support of his coach, Raymond Domenech. “ Six months of suspension, at 33, for a player who has never had problems, is a life sentence », he whispered while the goalkeeper’s entourage suggested that he could end his career in the event of too heavy a suspension.
