French Football Star Accuses French National Team of Racism and Islamophobia

News Agencies – December 7, 2010

Chelsea football player Nicolas Anelka has accused French football of effective racism following the treatment of some of the country’s World Cup flops this season. When Anelka faced Marseille in September 2010 he was jeered throughout, leading the forward to suggest there was more to the treatment of some of the World Cup squad than met the eye.

“In difficult moments, we see what people really think. They said ‘Franck Ribery hit Yoann Gourcuff; Gourcuff is a good French boy, Ribery is a Muslim. It went too far. When the France team does not win, then immediately people start to talk about religion and race.”

And the striker, who received an 18-game ban from the national team for his part in the World Cup problems, revealed he was not very patriotic about his homeland and he would rather quit the team than sing the national anthem. “I am not ‘made in France’ – that is the place where I have had nothing but trouble.

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