France tearing themselves apart, even as country expects Euro 2016 glory

Provisions have already been made. Before the first float has even rolled on to the Stade de France pitch for the opening ceremony, before the first ball of the first match has been kicked, plans for the streets of Paris to be cleared in the event of a French triumph on July 10 have been made. They might even lay out the cones early, such is the height of expectancy.

Indeed, Les Bleus are widely considered favourites to win Euro 2016 this summer, with some bookmakers even going so far as to make them odds-on frontrunners. They have the strongest squad with the best players and with the support of a nation behind them Didier Deschamps’ side will be a force, even if they don’t end up with the trophy in hand.

However, such predictions of success have been rather more settled than their build-up to the tournament itself. Is the French national team starting to eat itself in the way the French national team so often does? Are their chances falling apart before the championships have even begun?

A number of top-tier players will be missing from action this summer. Italy will be without midfielder Marco Verratti, with Vincent Kompany’s absence a loss for Belgium. Germany have been hit hard too, as Ilkay Gundogan and Marco Reus prepare for a summer of watching the European Championship from their sofa. But no side has felt the impact of injuries like France have.

The defensive heart of their team has been ripped out following injuries to Raphael Varane and Aymeric Laporte, both of whom would have formed Deschamps’ centre-back pairing. Without them defensive blues could soon descend on Les Bleus, especially with back-up option Kurt Zouma also sidelined through injury.

But that’s not even the greatest indignity to have struck France in the run-up to this summer’s Euros. Given the dirt kicked up by Karim Benzema’s omission from the squad, and all that has come with it, injuries probably aren’t the thing keeping Deschamps awake at night. It certainly isn’t the thing keeping him on the front pages.

Benzema is doing that all on his own. The Real Madrid striker was suspended by the French Football Federation in December after being placed under criminal investigation for his alleged role in an attempt to blackmail international team-mate Mathieu Valbuena over a sex tape. He hasn’t taken that suspension lying down, though.

Instead Benzema claimed that Deschamps has “bowed to the pressure of a racist part of France” by omitting him from France’s squad for the European Championships, adding that his exclusion has more to do with his North African roots than anything concerning the Valbuena sex-tape case.

It’s a view Eric Cantona first promoted, questioning why Hatem Ben Arfa has also been left at home for the tournament. “Deschamps, he has a really French name. Maybe he is the only one in France to have a truly French name,” the former Manchester United forward and French international said. “Nobody in his family mixed with anybody, you know. Like the Mormons in America.”

Such criticism is somewhat ironic, considering that in Deschamps Les Bleus have a figurehead who knows what it’s like to sample the most glorious of glories on home soil, uniting a country not always so unified in sporting triumph. He did it in 1998, when France won the World Cup in the midst of a cultural awakening. Now he is charged as manager with delivering something similar at the European Championships.

“That is my story from when I was younger,” he shrugs off, instead choosing to focus on the task at hand this summer. “The players know about it, but I never talk about it in front of them. It was a useful experience for me and has helped in my coaching career, but I don't live in the past. I have to adapt to the current situation.

“The similarity is that we are the hosts as we were in 1984 and 1998. It's not necessarily an advantage, but in the team I played in, it was a driving force. Expectations were high, as was the adrenaline. When you represent your country, nothing beats a big international tournament like a Euro or World Cup. We were lucky enough to win both.”

The issues swirling round Deschamps now, thanks to Cantona and Benzema, are in stark contrast to the way the 1998 World Cup is remembered. Yet it’s worth recalling the bluster and fluster that preceded France’s triumphant campaign back then as well, with Jean Marie Le Pen’s far-right National Front party openly opposing the ethnic diversity of France’s squad for the tournament. The picture was not as rosy as is often made out.

The difference this time is that Les Bleus seem to be tearing themselves apart from the inside out. The next month could feasibly witness an even greater disintegration than the one that marred their 2010 World Cup campaign, when a player insurrection ruined their chances in South Africa. Even in such a position of apparent strength, it shouldn’t be overlooked that France are always capable of beating France.