France, Thierry Henry & The New Calciopoli

April 22nd, 2010 | by: chris |

ribery_1420978c All the way back in 2006, there was this thing they called “Calciopoli” whipping up into a furor on the peninsula. It was an enormous distraction, one fraught with harsh accusations against the very core of Italian football, and left the club futures of many in the Italian team hanging in the balance. The players had far more on their plates than merely the biggest football games of their lives.

Four years later it feels like it’s just begun, probably because it has (at the request of Marcello Lippi), and the black eye it left on Italy still hasn’t gone away. But strangely enough, Calciopoli wasn’t all bad: it’s widely held as the scandal which won Italy the World Cup.

A silver lining quickly turned into gold.

And this is where France comes in. Right now there is another scandal whipping into a similar lather involving French football – or at least players involved with Les Bleus. Four players have been accused of hiring a 17yo prostitute for services a prostitute typically provides. (Cheese sandwiches, car washes, bonsai tree trimming, etc.) One of those players happens to be France’s best, Franck Ribery, and right now he’s at least in heaps of trouble with the wife, perhaps the legal system later on. The Guardian:

The scandal engulfing Les Bleus, which began when Ribéry was questioned by police in connection with a prostitution ring, also deepened after judicial sources said the 27-year-old had admitted having sex with a 17-year-old prostitute but denied having known she was underage. In France it is illegal to buy sex from someone under 18.

The others linked with the case – Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben-Arfa and Sidney Govou – don’t carry quite the same weight of Ribery, but all are a part of the French setup and thus associated.

This, combined with Henry’s handball and the lasting image of Zidane in Germany, could, in some strange way, help Les Bleus. France, though they do have the benefit of timing and this could all be cleared up by June 11th, are going to be seen as a villain by many, much like Italy in 2006.

The Azzurri were famously unified by Calciopoli in 2006, playing not only for themselves, but playing against the criticisms of Italian football. It, along with the suicide attempt by Gianluca Pessotto, made them a quintessential team, rather than a collection of eleven national team members, and in the process Canna & Co. rode the country’s great scandal to international glory.

There is going to be an awful lot of criticism about France this summer, be it about the methods of their invitation or the current scandal which is only gaining steam as more leaks snake into the press. And in the midst of the smoke, it’d be an absolute stroke to embrace this “new Calciopoli” – in stark contrast to the actual new Calciopoli – as their once in a lifetime silver lining.

It may sound strange, surely terribly, horribly wrong, and it’s highly advised you don’t use it out of context, but Thierry Henry and a 17 year old hooker might be France’s best chance to win the World Cup.

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BVBFan

Have you seen that girl? She is one of the hottest i ve ever seen :)
BVBFan

ähm… now where she is 18 off course …
http://lyon.theoffside.com Inara

Because I am so awesome, here is a video of the girl (she’s the blond one). It’s NSFW btw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNdh-vVQ1VA
French Hooker Advocate

What’s her name? or pictures? preferably SFW.
matty t

she’s a bit anarexic but wow look at those boobies bouncee! bounce bounce bounceee
Zidaniac

Frenchmen sleep with an underage hooker (in a lot of countries that’s called rape) and people write blogs about how it will bring the team together.

John Terry sleeps with the ex-wife of a former teammate and people write blogs demanding his head on a platter.
bobby_digital

forget this story for a second and look at the kind of shows they have on french tv, lol. basically its some type of ‘dating’ show and you grind on the hot slutty girl of your choice and then she gets undressed in front of you, right? you couldnt get away with that here..lol @ the moroccan looking dude kissing her stomach, he was ready for action..man i need to move to europe… they really dont care…
Seth

Shame that such a pretty girl like that can be a prostitute. Ribery is a disgusting fat pedo. Bullocks about he wasn’t aware of her age.
bacon

italian controversy was a bit different, as the most guilty were the management of the top teams. the players responded positively because they felt like they had to prove their worth, as their teams’ actions put that into question. playing with a chip on their shoulders, if you will.

the controversy surrounding the french and english sides seems a bit different, and more divisive. french players will find it hard to support these 4 guilty ones, considering the moral outrage of the media. the english squad responded by stripping the guilty of his captaincy. the premier league even briefly split into “team terry” and “team bridge”.
Leona

What a disgusting and disturbing excuse for an article. I wonder what Chris Hansen and To Catch a Predator would have to say about this. You, blogger Chris, are a massive hypocrite and you should be ashamed of yourself. If these guys weren’t rich and famous footballers their excuse that they didn’t know how old she was would not hold up in court. How can you even be so glib about this issue? Some of those pictures of her are at least a couple years old – taken back when she was 16 – doesn’t that qualify as child porn?
Tony Plaza

This does lack a certain “touch of class” but it seems to be the true to form for this specific blogger…it probably wouldnt be a bad idea to remove the youtube link as well…
http://www.worldcupblog.org chris

Ashamed of myself? None of this is okay, if true. This is said with the assumption anyone guilty of anything will not be going anywhere near a pitch this summer.

Unless, of course, they’re hiding behind aliases. Then they should be ashamed of themselves.
http://lyon.theoffside.com Inara

She’s 18 in the vid guys, relax.
Ahmed

French society is disgusting and hypocritical.
Foreverzidane

@ Leona calm down it’s only Chris! He will always be this way, just read some of his other past masterpieces.
http://www.bloodredemption.com/ Simon

forget this story for a second and look at the kind of shows they have on french tv, lol. basically its some type of ‘dating’ show and you grind on the hot slutty girl of your choice and then she gets undressed in front of you, right? you couldnt get away with that here..lol @ the moroccan looking dude kissing her stomach, he was ready for action..man i need to move to europe… they really dont care…