The strike was organized to protest the sending-home by the French football authorities of a player who had verbally abused the coach in an expletive-laden rant and then refused to apologize. The team captain spoke ominously of "traitors" in the dressing room and clashed with the assistant coach, who then quit. Several senior members of the squad were identified in the press as "gang-leaders" agitating against the coach. A government minister called the behavior of the players "appalling."
Similar troubles brewing in Team England bubbled to the surface when the former captain, recently removed for an extra-marital affair with a teammate's fiancee, complained in a press conference about squad selection and other mis-handlings of football matters by the coach. Several senior members of the squad were identified as being unhappy, who promptly denied his allegations, notwithstanding their recent complaints in the press about the monotony of their training regime.
France promptly crashed out of the group stage of the world cup finals, and England squeezed through on the back of a squeaker.
Many spectators, like Spore Sprout, feel that such dismal results are only to be expected when teams are dysfunctional. But which is the chicken and which the egg? Steve Archibald may well have a point when he famously called team spirit an illusion brought on by victory.
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