France Refuses to Train, Now Back At Work

This story got lust in the shuffle of a busy sports weekend with the US Open golf, interleague baseball, and, of course, the WNBA, but the France soccer team is back training after refusing to practice. The team protested the French soccer's federation to suspend Nicolas Anelka (pictured right) from the team and send him home packing.

This is quite embarrassing for French soccer, which is usually such a strong force at the World Cup, but has struggled this year going 0-1-1 thus far. Both sides, the Federation and the squad, handled the situation poorly. The reasoning for Anelka's dismissal was for his poor sportsmanship at halftime against Mexico where a sports publication in Europe caught him shouting vulgarities at a Mexico player. Anelka's words were subsequently published on the front page of L'Equipe, a French nationwide daily newspaper.

Naturally, the French squad was enraged by the decision to exile one of their best players from the World Cup and elected to not train for their coach. What they did not understand, however, was the embarrassment this brought to themselves, their sport, and their beloved nation of France.

Here is my major question: could this entire ordeal not have been handled in a more quiet and appropriate manner? Was it necessary to send Anelka back to France? Couldn't the Federation simply urge him to make a public apology saying that his actions and words were wrong? Secondly, the refusal to practice by the French team was over the top and rather immature. Issues like this are commonplace amongst sports teams. Many teams choose to handle a situation like this inside the locker room and privately. It is possible that the team felt they were mistreated by the French soccer federation, and needed to make a statement that the entire world could hear.

Needless to say, the entire issue was mishandled by both parties. It does not loook like the departure of Anelka will matter much anyways, as Mexico and Uruguay are likely to advance out of pool play and into the knockout stage of the tournament.

Fearless Prediction: The Yankees score more than double the runs the Diamondbacks score tonight.