France’s humiliating first round exit from the World Cup took center stage in French politics on Thursday, overshadowing a national strike and preparations for a G20 summit.
Police were deployed in numbers to protect the return of the team, French President Nicolas Sarkozy changed his schedule to meet Thierry Henry and French Minister for Health and Sports Roselyne Bachelot called for the resignation of the French Federation chairman.
The disgraced Bleus returned home in a plane chartered by the French Federation which landed at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris.
Their campaign, marred by infighting and the boycott of a training session, ended on Tuesday with a 2-1 defeat by hosts South Africa that left them bottom of Group A without a win.
A smattering of supporters were kept at a distance and photographers and journalists were penned behind a wire fence.
Some of the players went straight into two coaches with darkened windows which left the airport through a back entrance without going through passport control and customs.
Team captain Thierry Henry was driven in an official car under police escort to the Elysee Palace.
Henry entered the presidential palace through a side door, far from the media who were waiting for him at the main entrance.
He left the same way and a government spokesman said there would be “no statement and no comment.”
Meanwhile, television cameramen on motorbikes had followed the car that was driving Patrick Evra back to Paris.
The Manchester United player, who captained Les Bleus in their first two world cup games but was dropped for the last one, opened his window but cut questions short saying: “Today is not the time to speak, today is the time for suffering.”
Players and Federation leaders will, however, not be able to avoid questions for long.
In one of the harshest condemnations so far, Bachelot castigated “the disaster of the national team made of immature gang leaders in command of scared kids with a coach at a loss and without any authority and a federation with its back against the wall.”
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