I apologize. I promise that this article will be about football. About the disaster of the French team, for example, and its vilified former manager, Raymond Domenech.

But before that, I should mention the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett and briefly refer to his well-known stage play Endgame that, perhaps not by sheer chance, was originally written in French. May I offer you a brief synopsis? In short, it is about four characters – one invalid, another who can’t sit down, and two who have no legs – who each inhabit a trash can, occasionally ask for food and have ridiculous arguments with each other. According to critic Harold Bloom, the text contains a clear allusion to Hamlet’s famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy, in which doubt prevents him from making any decision at all. The essential line of the play is "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness." The play also makes it obvious that the characters have a past, but there is no indication whatsoever that they might have a future.

Let’s continue then with the French team. There are those who sensed that when Zidane headbutted Materazzi, it was the beginning of France’s decline. No one could have anticipated, however, that the runners up four years ago could possibly have become so debilitated. Reaching this point, can we talk about surprises? Well, no, rather the contrary; in 2008 they experienced a very disappointing European Championship (which they also went out of without winning a single match), classified for the World Cup with an outrageous handball and, just a few weeks ago, lost a friendly against China without scoring any goals. The team was also experiencing ego problems among its players: some of the youngest players didn’t like Henry and several seriously questioned Gallas. In fact, some of the others sniggered at Govou, while the majority openly made fun of Gourcuff, extolled by a certain sector of French society as the rightful successor to Zidane.

All in all, everyone now knows how it ended. From favorites to defenestrates, France made terrible fools of themselves in South Africa and went home being ridiculed by their own supporters. They drew 0-0 with Uruguay despite playing with more men (following Lodeiro’s expulsion), lost 0-2 against Mexico and even against a lesser rival like the host country, lost once again (1-2). As if that were not enough, prior to the game Nicolas Anelka was expelled from the team for criticizing the manager with a string of abuse and the rest of the players then led a strike during training.

And so finally, we come to Domenech who, despite bearing a striking resemblance to the romantic singer Charles Aznavour, was famous in his younger days for being a fierce striker, allowing himself to grow formidable moustaches to intimidate his opponents.

After managing the unexceptional teams of Moulhouse and Olympique de Lyon (which latter qualified for the UEFA Cup), he took charge of the French Under-21s side between 1993 and 2004. He reached the final of the 2002 European Cup but lost in the same way that he managed to lose with the adult team in the 2006 World Cup.

However, it is fascinating that he has managed to last so long as the helmsman of the French team, given that he is a tremendous aficionado of astrology. "They are Scorpions and Scorpions have a tendency to self-destruct. That’s not good for the team," he commented, completely naturally, on explaining why he never called up Ludovic Giuly or Robert Pires, because of their zodiac signs.

In that way, he won the hatred of the French press and invoked its further wrath when he later declared that his perfect world would be one in which he didn’t have to talk to journalists. A somewhat contradictory desire given that his wife is – of course! – a sports journalist to whom he proposed at the most inopportune moment: on television just seconds after France was eliminated in the first round of the 2008 European Championship.