Dirty TackleFrench lawmaker upset with team’s €100,000-each Euro 2012 bonuses
After a bit more infighting, France went out of Euro 2012 with a whimper in a 2-0 quarterfinal loss to Spain -- their second straight loss and by the same margin as their defeat to Sweden in their final group stage match. Their elimination was immediately followed by Samir Nasri cursing out a French journalist. And now, one member of parliament in particular, Olivier Faure, doesn't think it's so great that the players are getting a bonus of €100,000 each for all they did.
From the AFP:
"Today, many French people will ask why we pay so much out to people who respect the public so little," Faure, a close ally of President Francois Hollande, told Europe 1 radio.
The French earned further brickbats in the press when most of them did not greet fans on their arrival back from the competition in Poland and Ukraine, leaving a sour taste among supporters.
"When the French are suffering from things such as a fall in their purchasing power and yet see players pocketing 100,000 euros at the end of this competition before then showing contempt for their public it is very painful," said Faure, saying fans could expect better from their team.
Now, Faure is a socialist, so he's probably not a big fan of professional footballers getting €100,000 bonuses anyway, and the claim that they didn't greet fans upon their arrival back in France seems dubious since a few members of the team did stop to sign autographs for supporters waiting in the airport terminal. Samir Nasri, meanwhile, faces a two-year ban from the national team for swearing at that journalist.
And while protesting the team's bonuses is one way to express displeasure with how they handled themselves, one fan opted for a more subtle show of his displeasure by throwing himself in front of a car after they arrived back home...
