DAVID GINOLA HAS launched legal action against Gerard Houllier, suing his former international manager for “public insult and defamation.”
Houllier, who was at the helm when France disastrously failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, recently reopened a long-running feud between the pair with his contribution to a new book, Coaching Secrets.
The former Liverpool and Aston Villa coach has long been critical of Ginola, repeatedly singling the winger out for his role in France’s 2-1 defeat against Bulgaria in November 1993.
Before the game, Ginola — then with Paris Saint-Germain — hit out at the inclusion of Marseille players Jean-Pierre Papin and Eric Cantona in the team ahead of him, leading to a chorus of boos from the partisan Parisian support every time they touched the ball.
The Telegraph reports part of Houllier’s contribution to the book, published in France last month.
“PSG play at the Parc des Princes,” he wrote. “PSG’s enemy is Marseille.”
When he says that Papin and Cantona should not play and that he should play instead… he is a bastard because every time Papin or Cantona touched the ball, they were booed.
It is not known which particular comment or comments have prompted the lawsuit. Speaking to the BBC, Ginola’s representatives said: “To use those words, and to have them in a book that is meant to sell and to sell heavily, this was a very heavy quote.”
In the past, Houllier has also publicly slammed Ginola for not holding on to possession from an injury-time free-kick, allowing Emil Kostadinov to break away for the winner, ending France’s hopes of qualification.
Great piece Niall, but there are a couple of other points here.
If, for example, Kenny Egan was to travel to Baku, he could qualify for the Olympics, and would do so in the same weight division as Joe Ward. As a country can only enter one fighter in any weight class, as far as I’m aware, Ward could then not even compete in Istanbul and his Olympic dreams would be dashed, even though he is European Champion. This is the same for any of our ‘stars’ who miss out.
Also, if IABA were to send Ward and Moylette, the European champions would be seeded and thus get an easier draw. If they send other boxers in the same weight classes, that seeding is lost.
Thanks for the comments Gavin.
I see Kenny has declared that he’s stepping up to Heavyweight for this week’s competition, which was presumably decided in order to avoid the clash with Ward that you mentioned. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next week.