National Anthem jeering will result in cancellation

Last month, Tunisia supporters visiting the Stade de France controversially booed the French national anthem prior to a friendly. This enraged French Prez Nicolas Sarkozy, who decreed that French football games should be cancelled if anyone jeers the pre-match national anthem. Sports minister Roselyne Bachelot confirmed the threat, saying: “Any match at which our national anthem is whistled at will be immediately stopped.” No one cared to explained to her that a match that has yet to start cannot be “immediately stopped”.

For the first time since the deplorable event, France will return to the Paris stadium tonight to face Uruguay. Unlike the Tunisians, the South Americans will have little political cause to boo France’s national anthem La Marseillaise, yet Paddy Power are offering 33/1 on the match being cancelled on account of naughty crowd behaviour.

If the visiting fans fancy travelling thousands of miles to see a game called off, they know exactly what to do.

The north/ further north divide in France has never been more apparent

Everyone in the UK has been getting their knickers in a twist about the lack of respect shown by fans and officials in football, but we are not the only country dealing with controversy in the game.

Paris Saint-Germain fans kicked up a storm by unfurling a huge banner reading ‘Paedophiles, Unemployed, Inbreeding, Welcome to the North’, during a cup game with Lens on Saturday. The message mimics the name of a film currently out in France, and the Parisians were deemed to have gone too far in insulting their friends from the north (slightly further north than them, that is).

French football chief Frederic Thiriez has promised to lay the smackdown on the ‘imbeciles’ who marred the Coupe de la Ligue final, and much like Gordon Brown wading into the respect debate in today’s papers (”Footballers have a greater responsibility than anyone else to set the right example for young people,” he says - that should do the trick), French President Nicolas Sarkozy - who

France’s new first lady missed the chance to work through Roman’s billions

Supermodel Carla Bruni, who is rumoured to have married France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy in secret last week, could so easily have been first lady of Chelsea, if reports from Italy’s cable SitcomUno channel are to be believed.

The channel reports that Roman Abramovich and Miss Bruni were introduced in London last year by society chemist Kate Moss, said to be a friend of them both, at a party held at the posh people’s disco Annabel’s.

According to witnesses (and please remember this story has had to pass through the filters of coked up toffs and an Italian gossip organisation) the Russian was initially so