France moves to halt booing of national anthem

Posted By Blake Hounshell Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 8:33 AM Share

France's sports minister, Roselyne Bachelot, is tired of seeing her country's national anthem dishonored. Fans booed the anthem, "La Marseillaise," during the French soccer team's win over Tunisia Tuesday in what was supposed to be a "friendly" match. An outraged President Nicolas Sarkozy called the fans' behavior "scandalous."

"Any match when our national anthem is whistled will be stopped immediately," warned Bachelot, and "government members will immediately leave the arena."

French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes blamed "imbecilic" fans for the new policy, and another top government official suggested that maybe France ought not to play friendly matches with North African countries at all.

I imagine Americans would react with similar anger if the "Star Spangled Banner" were booed in the United States. But as a Le Monde editorial argues, perhaps a better idea would be to finally get serious about addressing the root causes here -- the alienation and social disintegration of North African communities in France.

Watch the video of the incident in question here:

EXPLORE:EUROPE, FRANCE, SPORTS
 
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EUGENESUCKS

11:57 AM ET

October 16, 2008

I'm no professional blogger

I'm no professional blogger on foreign policy but I can't think of any country that enjoys having their anthem booed.

 

JBOONST1

12:13 PM ET

October 16, 2008

Aux armes, les spectateurs!

That whole colonialism thing wasn't very "friendly" either, of course.

 

MATTHEWK

4:56 PM ET

October 16, 2008

Booing

During the Floyd Mayweather/Ricky Hatton fight in Vegas last year British fans in the audience did boo the American anthem. From what I hear it just made the Americans sing their anthem louder, which is surprising since at most sporting events I go to we never sing along.

Oh, then Mayweather knocked out Hatton.. that's more than enough payback.

The French should grow up and just take it, not act like brats and storm off the field. It's just a sporting match

 

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