Ooh La La! Sacre Bleu!!

French football has been rocked by two scandals...
... the same scandals occur in England but the mainstream media ensure that such realities never reach the public eye.

Six senior figures have been charged with matchfixing including Caen chief executive Jean-Francois Cortin, the Nimes president Jean-Marc Conrad (who has resigned over the affair), the managing director of Nimes as well as Nimes' main shareholder Serge Kasparian.

The club officials have been accused of fixing a series of matches, notably a 1-1 draw between Caen and Nimes on 13 May, which led to Caen being promoted to Ligue 1 and Nimes avoiding relegation to French football’s third division.

Magistrates have been trying to establish if pressure was exerted by Nimes on other Ligue 2 teams as the club battled against relegation. Recordings of telephone conversations between leading figures of several clubs form a key part of the evidence.

All six men have been released on bail on condition that they have no contact with one another.

French national newspapers have released transcripts of the telephone conversations between Jean-Francois Fortin and Jean-Marc Conrad relating to the investigated football match between Caen and Nimes.

When Fulham retained their Premier League place following a fixed match between themselves and Portsmouth in 2008, the media was silent although the fix was known within the game.
Fulham's manager at the time, Mr Roy Hodgson, is now manager of England.

To compound matters in France, these charges occurred in the same week as Marseille president Vincent Labrune (together with leading club figures) were detained on suspicion of committing transfer fraud.

One British agent (with links to the Fulham match mentioned above) once informed me that he was offered a suitcase containing £40,000 by another agent as a persuader to drop his third party interest in a Spanish defender Liverpool were interested in signing.

This information was provided to me in order to show that corruption acts as an illicit currency within the game.

During the French Revolution of 1789, it was decided that people need equality in relation to the market...
... 225 years later, football has yet to understand this.