Bundesliga rights: DFL, Kirch and the Microsoft paragraph
The personnel composition of the Bleus – with a rapidly increasing proportion of second and third generation immigrants as well as players born outside mainland France – prompted the political "right-winger" Jean-Marie Le Pen to write a tirade in 2006 that the French people could not be in this team For parts of the media and a number of renowned coaching colleagues in France, the main problem was that he was unable to form a homogeneous team from good individual players in which they could optimally demonstrate their individual strengths, as well as too frequent changes to details of the French game concept. With five defeats in eleven games – including the first defeat against Germany since 1987 – Deschamps had the worst record of a French national coach in his debut season in more than half a century. On the one hand, the low average age of the French world champions offered good conditions for them to continue to be at the top of the big leagues in the coming years.
Not one of the big favorites, but Klaus Hose from Bochum took advantage of his home advantage and became German champion for the first time. However, in the season finale they played a draw against 1. FSV Mainz 05, while FC Bayern beat 1. FC Köln 2-1 with a goal in the 89th minute and thus became German champions again. Below is a selection of players who were active in the youth department of Borussia Dortmund for at least a year before their first professional appearance and who played at least 50 games in one of the five "big" leagues Bundesliga (or in the Oberliga before 1963) and Premier League during their professional career, Primera División, Serie A and Ligue 1 (the year of birth of the player is indicated in brackets). A month later, the Bleus showed their better side and beat Belgium 3-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time in a dramatic semi-final of the UEFA Nations League that was played very offensively by both sides. The Bleus finished level on points with the Dutch in their group, but had the worse goal difference and therefore did not qualify for the round of the last four teams. In the European Championship preliminary round, which was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the French faced a very demanding task in Group F with Germany, against whom they won, Hungary and defending champions Portugal, against whom they each drew.
As head of Group H, the world champions had to contend with Iceland, Turkey, Albania, Moldova – against whom France had never played – and neighbors Andorra. In the tabloid press, John Brown became the target of cruel jokes; there were rumors that he was Victoria's lover or even secretly married to her, which is why the Queen herself was referred to disparagingly as Mrs. In the summer of 2021, Inzaghi replaced Antonio Conte as coach of the reigning champions Inter Milan. The French have known their opponents in World Cup preliminary group D since April 1, 2022; In November they will face Denmark, Tunisia and one of the intercontinental qualifiers that had not yet been determined at the time of the draw (United Arab Emirates, Australia or Peru, of which Australia prevailed in the summer). The French will have to defend this title from summer 2022 when they first face Denmark, Croatia and newly promoted Austria in the third game in Nations League Group A1. In September 2016, France won a warm-up game in Italy 3-1. The success in Bari extends the streak in which the French have not lost against the hosts in Italy since 1962 (three wins and two draws). Blanc's first season got off to a positive start with eight wins, two draws and – in the two opening games – two defeats, also because France was able to record victories against Brazil and in England and subsequently qualified directly for the European Championship finals.
In the 2019/20 season, 1. FC Saarbrücken became the first fourth division team in the history of the DFB Cup to reach the semi-finals. February 20, 1907 is considered an important date because on that day Club Atlético de Madrid was considered completely independent of Athletic Club de Bilbao. After the victory, Real Madrid players celebrated their success with a triumphal procession through the Spanish capital on an open-top double-decker bus. The club's first emblem was the initials MFC, which stood for Madrid Football Club, in dark blue color. The qualifying groups for the 2018 World Cup had already been drawn in the summer of 2015, and France didn't draw an easy draw. In the first five games of the season, Deschamps once again proved to be very “experimental”; 27 players were used in them. Taking the collective problem into their own hands or speaking to the coach about tactical questions, they are “more interested in their own Statistics than for the performance of the team" (Laurent Blanc). In November 2013, the French managed to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil in the play-offs, but the central problem of the national team since 2006 seemed to persist. On the other hand, not only the examples of the three predecessors Italy (title holders in 2006), Spain (2010) and Germany (2014) show that the role of the “hunted” is a difficult one.
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