Sarkozy meets with Henry after French World Cup debacle (Roundup)

Jun 24, 2010, 14:16 GMT

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy received France striker Thierry Henry Thursday for talks about the disastrous performance of the national team at the 2010 World Cup.

BFM TV reported that the meeting lasted about one hour, and that Henry left the Elysee Palace by a side door, avoiding the dozens of journalists that had congregated there.

According to Sarkozy's office, the meeting was called at Henry's request after Les Bleus, as the team is called, were eliminated from the tournament Tuesday after the group phase.

France's football failure was accompanied by a one-day team mutiny and the exclusion of striker Nicolas Anelka for insulting manager Raymond Domenech, and has provoked nationwide outrage.

Henry and the rest of the players arrived earlier Thursday at Le Bourget airport near Paris, where they were welcomed by a few dozen supporters. However, they left the airport without stopping to greet their fans.

On Wednesday, Sarkozy held an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Francois Fillon, Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot and the junior minister for sports, Rama Yade, to discuss the side's World Cup fiasco.

Bachelot told RTL radio Thursday that it was inevitable that the much criticized head of the French Football Federation, Jean-Pierre Escalettes, would be relieved of his post.

A spokesman for FIFA refused to comment Thursday on the French government's involvement with the national side and the federation, which runs counter to the governing body's rules.

'We have no official information about that,' FIFA media director Nicolas Maingot said in Johannesburg.

FIFA has previously suspended several countries, such as Iran and Kenya, because their governments became involved with national football federations.

To meet with Henry, Sarkozy cancelled a meeting with several NGOs ahead of the G20 summit in Canada. To protest the cancellation, the groups decided to boycott a meeting with another member of the government.

'For the president, meeting with a football player is apparently more important than the situation of three million poor people in developing countries,' a spokesman for the NGOs said.

The daily Liberation reported Thursday that Sarkozy had cancelled a scheduled meeting with Swiss President Doris Leuthard on Tuesday so he could watch France's defeat at the hands of South Africa.