France-Côte d'Ivoire: first match of the Blues against an African selection since 2016
Nicolas Pépé (Ivory Coast) scorer against Algeria, during CAN 2022. © FMM / Pierre René-Worms
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
3 mins
The French world champions play in a friendly against Côte d'Ivoire on Friday March 24 in Marseille, then against South Africa four days later in Lille, two posters - extremely rare - in recent years.
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Côte d'Ivoire, 56th nation in the FIFA rankings, eliminated in the round of 16 of the African Cup of Nations at the end of January, and not qualified for the 2022 World Cup, faces France in a friendly.
The last meeting of the Blues against an African selection dates back to November 15, 2016 in a friendly in Lens, and already against Côte d'Ivoire.
France never went to play in sub-Saharan Africa
Five and a half years later, the French will therefore find the "Elephants".
The Blues will face four days later at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium against South Africa, twelve years after the 2-1 defeat in the first round of the 2010 World Cup against the "Bafana-Bafana".
“
France has never been to sub-Saharan Africa.
It is the reluctance of French officials who are afraid of everything
”, laments the technician Claude Le Roy, former coach in particular of Togo, Cameroon or Senegal, joined by RFI.
"
We managed to organize a Senegal-France in 1993 and it was a great success
," he recalls.
If France moved to
Concorde
in one of its former colonies, it was with an A 'team, antechamber of the great selection.
At the time, the clubs had the fear of malaria or yellow fever as indicated by Claude Le Roy.
Bernard Lama or Christian Karembeu were still on the trip.
"
We can no longer say that there are no beautiful stadiums and beautiful lawns
, ”explains Claude Le Roy.
And to recall: “
He was 20 years old, Senegal beat France in the World Cup.
For me the African teams are underrated.
The African players would have to fight for the France team to travel as well
”.
As Claude Le Roy points out, African players have made and still make the heyday of the French championship.
The Stade Vélodrome, where the meeting between France and Côte d'Ivoire will take place is quite a symbol.
There, we saw George Weah, Joseph-Antoine Bell, and Didier Drogba evolve.
Overloaded schedule
Faced with an overloaded calendar, African selections are struggling to organize friendly matches against European nations, to the regret of their coaches who would like to compete with the best.
"
With the new system, we no longer even have a possible date to make a friendly match against an African selection
", regretted the end of November the president of the French Federation, Noël Le Graët, in an interview with AFP.
In the past, "
we made interesting matches against African national teams on our territory where the stadiums were full
", added the leader, stressing that he "
loves Africa
".
UEFA's creation of the League of Nations in Europe "
has marginalized friendly matches, which are now practically on the way to extinction
", explains to AFP Gaël Mahé, Fifa match agent, who works with federations and in particular on the African continent.
Fewer friendly against the big nations of Europe and South America, "
it's a shame
" for Africa whose selections "
want to have better opponents
", notes Didier Deschamps.
"
Like us, they are faced with a reality of calendars that are not often compatible, for four or five years it has been more complicated to find friendly matches
", adds the French coach, considering that "
it is good to be confronted with different footballs
.
In the World Cup, the last confrontation between France and an African team dates back to 2014 in Brazil.
The Blues beat Nigeria 2-0 in the round of 16.
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