Countdown to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil: Day 24

The 2014 World Cup begins on June 12, when Brazil plays Croatia in the opening match. Reporters and editors for The Times will count down to the start of the tournament each day with a short capsule of news and interesting tidbits.

The woman behind the man doth protest a bit too much, and now it will be for the courts in France to decide.

Anara Atanes, the girlfriend of the Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri, on Tuesday unleashed a profanity laced stream of invective on Twitter at Didier Deschamps, the coach of France’s national team, after he left Nasri off the national team he will take to Brazil. We could embed the tweets in this posting, but a link will have to do. Beware, they are pretty raw. The following was part of the tirade: “Let’s just get this straight! I’m not mad…. I just think there’s a level of respect to be had!”

Late last week Deschamps and the French federation served notice of a civil suit against Atanes, who is the English-born model and singer for the group Fanfare.

In a statement released on Friday the French federation said: “FFF condemns insulting remarks against Didier Deschamps and fully supports the coach in his approach. The unanimous feedback confirmed that the entire France condemned such remarks. FFF believes that the unanimous indignation is enough to condemn such behavior.”

Atanes issued an apology to Deschamps, but it does not seem to have dissuaded him from carrying through with the lawsuit. In her apology she said, on Twitter, of course: “I apologize if i offended anyone from France, My tweets were not aimed at the nation as a whole.”

During the news conference announcing his team Dechamps said: “Samir is an important player for Manchester City but he has not performed that well with France. He is a starter at City, which is not the case with France, and he has made it clear that he is not happy when he is a substitute — and I can tell you it can be felt in the squad.”

Nasri, 26, who was part of the City team that won the Premier League this season, was also left off the 2010 France team that imploded in South Africa. He was not part of the 23-man squad Deschamps named on Tuesday.

Nasri told Sky Sports: “It’s a little bit hard to accept. I need to take some time now to think about the national team because it’s been twice now that they take away a World Cup from me. You can go around and ask any player if they’re happy to be on the bench, nobody’s going to say yes.”

Source: New York Times

Compiled by: M. D