Manchester City - PSG: nothing to hide the problems of French football

PSG travel to Manchester for their Champions League semi-final return against City.

The Parisians beaten 2-1 in the first leg will try to qualify for their second final in a row.

But, for Virginie Phulpin, it is the tree that hides the forest of a French football that must be questioned.

PSG have become accustomed to playing the leading roles in the Champions League, and the Blues are world champions.

So what, we stop at this flattering observation and we straighten our shoulders by taking ourselves for the best?

At some point you will have to stop being ecstatic in front of the window and look into the empty back room.

French football is not doing well.

Financially, the combination between the health crisis and the Mediapro fiasco has brought the clubs to their knees.

Canal + has recovered the rights to Ligue 1 until the end of the season.

But afterwards, it is a blur.

The channel wants to keep only the best posters of the championship.

It would therefore be necessary to find another broadcaster for the other matches.

Suffice to say that we are not out of the woods.

Because French football has a deficit of image, and level.

This weekend Thomas Tuchel, the former PSG coach today at Chelsea, said there was a chasm between the level of Ligue 1 and England.

Yes, he wants to show off the English.

But that doesn't prevent us from hearing his criticisms.

France is 8th in the UEFA ranking this season.

Behind Scotland, and just ahead of Israel.

Blame it on the disastrous results of our clubs in the European Cup.

PSG cannot hide everything else. 

For Virginie Phulpin, there are too many certainties and not enough questioning.  

"We are not here to please the public".

That's the little sentence of Thierry Laurey, the Strasbourg coach, after the match against OM this weekend.

Obviously that calls out.

He is partly right.

Football is not just a spectacle to amaze the crowds. Otherwise, we would all be for the Super League. It is not only the beautiful game in life, and football can come in a more timid and defensive version. Especially at the end of the season when we are fighting for maintenance like Strasbourg. But this sentence also shows that our coaches sometimes have ruts. Basically, they never have a lesson from anyone. They react very badly to criticism, like recently those of Pablo Longoria. The president of OM spoke of the absence of a French model in football, and of the fact that French coaches exported very little.

Why not hear these criticisms and question yourself a little?

So that the supporters want to watch the matches, that the broadcasters follow, and that French football has an image abroad more in line with its status as world champion.

Virginie Phulpin hopes that PSG will qualify for the Champions League final and that the Blues will win the Euro.

But even with these ideal scenarios, we will not do without further reflection.