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Give Laurent Blanc the Rouge Card

Emdad Rahman

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 No Thuram’s World Cup semi brace
No Zidane’s World Cup final spinner
No Wiltord for Euro glory
No Trezeguet’s Golden Goal winner

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Is French football racist?
Blaquart shoots a smoking gun
Views from the cultured land
Of Platini the immigrant’s son

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 “The Spaniards, they don’t have a problem,
“Because they don’t have any blacks,” Blanc muttered
“What is there that is big, strong, powerful?
“The blacks”, France’s head coach uttered

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 More Le Pen and the National Front
Big Brother imposes your garb
Tolerance is a myth in France
They banned the Niqab and Hijab

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Pomp of the Regatta De Blanc
Paris to Pays De La Loire
Integrated Blanc de Blancs
Does it matter if you’re blanc or noir?

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Number 7
(c) Emdad Rahman

© Emdad Rahman

Notes

Imagine how a French team without immigrants would fare.

In 1976 Marius Trésor would not have become the first black captain of France, nor the Guadeloupe born French icon have linked with Jean-Pierre Adams (In a coma for almost three decades) to form the legendary “Black Guard” (“La Garde Noire”) for seven years, leading France to the European Championships in 1984.

No Thuram to bail out the home nation with a brace against Croatia. The Parc Des Princes would have been void of Zidane’s World Cup winning brace, as well as Vieira’s run and assist for Petit’s third against the favourites Brazil. There would have been no scenes of national ecstasy with Zizou, the son of North African immigrant’s face not being projected onto the Arc de Triomphe after the great 1998 world cup win.

Two years later, Zidane was the best on the planet as Wiltord and Trezeguet scored the winning goals against an impossibly hard to break down Italian outfit.

There may have been no Platini, Desailly, Tigana and the magnificent Thierry Henry. Les Bleus’ history books would be wiped clean of 28 goals from Youri Djorkaeff.

Wonder what Evra, Sagna, Malouda, Anelka, Nasri, Ben Arfa, Benzema make of this.

I grew up watching Blanc and was awestruck by his panache, poise and reading of the game. Blanc had zero pace, but possessed Usain Bolt’s reflexes in his brain. God knows what he was thinking when he became embroiled in this racism tangle. He was a joy to watch and it is very sad that he has allowed himself to be associated with such views.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/give-laurent-blanc-the-rouge-card/