July 12 became a historic date in 1998 and not only for sports enthusiasts. While the Blues had previously never done better than a semi-final (1958, 1982, 1986), the French team became world champion after having crushed Brazil in the final (3-0).
The country is in celebration and France will live its most beautiful jubilation since the Liberation in 1945. In a press conference, Aimé Jacquet will nevertheless throw a cold by making very hard words. Despite the euphoria of victory, the former Bordeaux arrows the media in front of millions of viewers. “A certain press lied shamefully. I will never forgive them. I have only contempt for these people “he says. These people are mainly journalists of The teamqualified as “Thugs, irresponsible, dishonest and incompetent” and holders of “Monopoly of imbecility”. Enough to make the team's journalists, Jérôme Bureau and Vincent Duluc in mind, death threats.
The team pay the dependent papers there during the months preceding the World Cup, especially after the announcement of a list of 28 players. “” And are we playing 13? “, Do not hesitate to titrate The team The day after this announcement. The explanations of the coach do not convince and his person is attacked. The teamstill she, who had already explained that the former midfielder “Was not the man of the situation” thus qualified him in his editorial as
“Brave type”.
Aimé Jacquet never forgiven
Questioned in the columns of West France on the occasion of the 20e Anniversary of the coronation of the Blues, in 2018, Vincent Duluc returned to this controversy. “Let's go with the chain of draws at the start of the Jacquet era, during the 1996 Euro qualifications. 0-0, 0-0, still 0-0. The newspaper positioned itself on a line: “We are bored …”, he had explained. The easiest way would have been to stand at the line that we set for ourselves in January 1998: “It's good, we stop, now it is the World Cup in France. But the treatment of the false announcement of the 23, with the title on the front page: “And now we play 13? »Driven us back to the other side. »»
“With hindsight, beyond the idea of defending my newspaper, because we did not do everything perfectly, I think we made mistakes that we would not do again. But beyond that, this absence of debate made that we did CH … for 15 years in Ligue 1, with coaches who had been trained in Clairefontaine, in the wake of the World Cup, had he added. We did not put football at the center of the debate but the victory. We woke up on July 13 in a country that loved victory; Not in a country that loved football, even less in a country that loved the game. ” Remarks always relevant.
