France

Post by **GhaleonOne** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:05 pm

No, this isn't about the rioting going on in France right now. Instead, it's about this news story:

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5067822

I know a lot of you probably aren't soccer fans, but I found this somewhat outrageous. The French national team coach (the guy who will decide who goes in the World Cup French national team) apparently leans heavily on choosing what astronomical sign a player is. He doesn't trust a guy like Robert Pires because he's a Scorpio and he won't trust players born under the Scorpio sign. When Robert Pires is one of the best midfielders in the world. That, to me, is a load of bull. So a guy is going to be overlooked regardless of his skills and dedication to the team based on when he was born? And we're at the top level, the World Cup. The largest sporting event in the world. That to me reeks of ridiculous.

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:21 am

That's insane. How could he choose something so important with astrology signs? A great player is a great player, it doesn't matter when he/she was born. =/

Werefrog · Post by **Werefrog** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:17 am

Why did I expect to find something about the riots? But yeah the astrological signs thing is crazy... I'm a Cancer BTw.

Post by **Sonic#** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:37 am

When one mentions France
Hold on to your pants.

It's certainly not the first time superstition has worked its way into a sport, but it is a blindly discriminate one in this case. >_<

How many people think they are like their signs? Or another? And how many people think that they're so flattering that it's fairly easy to fall into the categories anyhow?

Post by **GhaleonOne** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:51 am

For me, it's not so much the fact that the coach believes in the astrological stuff, but just rather that he uses them to blindly make decisions about something. He can consult whatever he wants, and believe whatever he wants, but when you blindly throw a persons career into the wind on something like that, it's inexcusable, IMO. Nevermind the extremely high level of competition he's doing it at (and making a personal fortune as manager for such an accomplished national team). It's discriminatory to leave someone out of the squad based on a birthday. In a sense like this, it should be based on the players skill and worth to the team, not such a random thing as what day of the calendar year they were born. However, as long as he's winning games, he'll keep his job I'm sure.

Post by **Kizyr** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:12 am

A Frenchman? Discriminatory?

Get out of town...

Ok, now I'm just being mean. KF

DeathBeforeDenial · Post by **DeathBeforeDenial** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 9:17 pm

This guy should be seen on the same level as a racist who wouldn't want African Americans or Hispanic people on a certain sports team for no other reason than their skin color.

It sucks that descrimination in a lot of Europe is downplayed when shown in comparison with American xenophobia.

Post by **GhaleonOne** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:35 pm

That just reminded me of the comment by Spain's national team coach, calling France's star forward, Thierry Henry (who is black), a "monkey". Thankfully Henry is one of the ambassadors for FIFA in combatting the racial problems in Europe's football leagues. (particularly Italy, followed by Spain)

Post by **Kizyr** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:37 am

DeathBeforeDenial wrote:It sucks that descrimination in a lot of Europe is downplayed when shown in comparison with American xenophobia.

And it sucks that when you get right down to it, comparatively, Americans are extremely open-minded and accepting. KF

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