Coach Didier Deschamps saw his complaint against Eric Cantona declared void by the criminal court, due to procedural problems.
The trial on the merits is postponed to October 2021. Eric Cantona personally attacked Didier Deschamps, to criticize his choices as a coach.
The defamation complaint of the Blues coach Didier Deschamps against Eric Cantona was declared void Friday by the Paris Criminal Court, for procedural reasons.
Didier Deschamps, who has ten days to appeal this decision, accuses Eric Cantona of having defamed him on the eve of Euro-2016 when he declared in the British daily The Guardian that Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa no were not selected because of their origins.
In a statement, his lawyer Céline Bekerman said that Eric Cantona "assumed the words he had made in the past".
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A "victory" for Cantona
The court considered that the way in which the complaint was drafted was such as to "generate uncertainty as to the extent of the facts to which the defendant had to answer", that is to say that the words covered by the defamation no. were not clearly defined.
The lawyer of Eric Cantona, who had in the past defended the "freedom of expression" of his client immediately welcomed "this victory" and considers that "justice has been done".
Postponed, the trial on the merits had been postponed to October 2021. "One thing is certain, Benzema, (excluded from the Blues because of his indictment in the case of the sextape targeting his partner Mathieu Valbuena, Editor's note) and Hatem Ben Arfa (then on the reserve list, finally unsuccessful, NDR) they are the two best players in France and they will not play at the Euro. What is also certain is that their origins are North African. yes, the debate is open, "Canto", former Manchester United idol, said in The Guardian on May 26, 2016.
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"Like Mormons in America"
"Deschamps has a name that sounds good French. He is perhaps the only one in France to have such a French name. No one has ever mingled with anyone in his family. Like Mormons in America," he had added.
Deschamps immediately filed a defamation complaint.
Under the blue jersey, Cantona and Deschamps had not already lived a perfect idyll.
Cantona, who had not hesitated to qualify "DD" as "vulgar water carrier" in 1996, has always suspected the former captain of the Blues of having helped to remove him from the France team for the 'Euro that year.