Guyanese people are angry. And they say it. In question, a little sentence from Didier Deschamps. Asked about the possibility of seeing the French team stop in Guyana, where a vast “advanced base” project has been set up to welcome French or foreign delegations, before the 2014 World Cup and the Rio Games, the coach des Bleus judged that the Guyanese project was “scabrous”.
As you can imagine, Didier Deschamps' comments went down rather badly on Kourou's side. The members of the GIP (Public Interest Group) “Guyana advanced base” received them as a personal insult. Before holding an emergency meeting and issuing a press release. We can read this: “All members of the GIP Board of Directors, institutions and economic players in Guyana, are scandalized. Such comments are not worthy of a national coach, invested with a public service mission... Indeed, if technical considerations can justify not stopping in Guyana on the road to Brazil, nothing justifies such allegations, contemptuous and discriminatory, against all the partners who are involved in this great adventure. In addition to the consequences that this once again has on the perception of Guyana in France, this gratuitous assertion constitutes a real prejudice which penalizes us in our other international promotion efforts. This does not enhance its author and will not distract us from our objectives in the service of the population and Guyana. »
Clearly more diplomatic than his coach, the president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët, sought to explain himself by putting forward, pell-mell, the climatic gap between Guyana and the Blues' competition venues in Brazil, the complex logistical means , the calendar already established… The manager also suggested that the French junior team, or that of the women, would “perhaps” play a match in Guyana. A small consolation.
In Guyana, the project leaders today speak of a “semi-failure”. But Bernard Lama, the former goalkeeper of the Blues, vice-president of the GIP, is not giving up. He recalls that 32 teams will compete in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. And specifies that very advanced discussions have started with Ivory Coast, to welcome its team before joining its base camp in Brazil.
