Warnings to the French government has been reiterated by the FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke, the secretary general, that it must tread very carefully in its dealings with the French Football Federation (FFF).
Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, has indicated his government will investigate the national team’s humiliating performance in South Africa. If Sarkozy meddles in the running of the national soccer federation, Blatter said that raised the risk of the team being suspended from global tournaments. The French team have had some trouble with the Coach, Raymond Domenech, when star player, Nicholas Anelka was suspended from the French team and was sent back home. The result was a revolt from the team and France’s dismal performance in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In case of political interference, the FFF “can really rely on FIFA, even if it is at the presidential level.”France made an affaire d’etat of football, but football remains in the hands of the federation”, said Blatter.
With the running of national federations, FIFA’s rules specifically prohibit governments from involvement and it has the power to suspend any federation where there is evidence of such interference.
The resignation of Jean-Pierre Escalettes as FFF president is regretted by Blatter. He also said that France’s status in world football would not prevent FIFA stepping in. “Definitely, I can tell you that political interference will be dealt with by FIFA notwithstanding what kind of interference and what is the size of the country.”
Federations have been punished before by FIFA. Greece was suspended for several days in 2006, when they were European champions. In 2008, Iraq served a suspension. Recently, for the 2010 World Cup, Ethiopia was kicked out of their qualifying group.
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