The ‘Tournoi France 88’ was a Four Team Tournament in February 1988,
hosted by France.
The French National Team were in a crisis at this point. The Team
that had finished third in the 1986 World Cup was no longer as most of that
Generation had either retired from the game altogether (captain Michel Platini)
or retired from the National Team (Giresse, Rocheteau, Battiston, Tigana, Bossis).
The team had just failed to qualify for the Finals of the 1988
Euros and in fact only won a single match in the year 1987 (2-0 win over
Iceland).
National Team Manager Henri Michel saw this Tournament as an
opportunity to mold and unite a team and declared the 1990 World Cup as its
main objective.
He selected a 20-man squad for this Tour/Tournament that was to
form the backbone of the Future National Team.
He chose a squad of 20 instead of 22 and took only two goalkeepers
instead of three as to ‘not complicate things’.
France had also scheduled a friendly match vs. Israel at the end
of January to give a Tour like quality for this team building objective.
The Other participants for this Tournament were Austria,
Switzerland and Morocco.
Austria were now managed by Josef
Hickersberger, who like Michel, was preparing a team for the 1990 World Cup.
The Austrians had also failed to qualify for the 1988 Euros. Just like France,
the old guard of Krankl/Pezzey/Schachner had given way and a new Generation was
emerging led by the Torino-based striker Toni Polster.
Switzerland were
managed by Daniel Jeandupeux, who had experience in playing and managing in
France. They had failed to qualify for any major Tournament since the 1966
World Cup.
Morocco were the
only non-European participant of this Tournament. They were preparing for the upcoming
African Cup of Nations.
Strangely, this was
not a round-robin Tournament. The format consisted of two teams facing off, whereby
the winners would play each other for a Final and the losers would play in the
Third-place match.
Before the
Tournament started, following the friendly match vs. Israel, France were
embroiled in a drama involving their two veterans: Luis Fernandez and Manuel
Amoros.
On January 27th,
Israel and France played to a (1-1) tie at Tel Aviv. Henri Michel had stated
that the starting lineup would be his ideal team for future matches.
Henri Michel had
chosen to start with Passi and Fernandez in midfield, even though both players
had been out two months due to injury.
Jose Touré also
started even though he just arrived the day before from Los Angeles, where his
club Bordeaux were on Tour.
France’s display had
been nothing short of disastrous.
Manuel Amoros criticized
the performance of the team in general as well as Team Captain Luis Fernandez.
Fernandez responded
back via the Press in a harsh manner. As a result, Henri Michel dropped Fernandez
for the first match of the Tournament vs. Switzerland on February 2nd
and elevated Manuel Amoros as Captain.
It was alleged by
the Press that Fernandez had his bags packed and was to leave the team, until
French Federation President Jean Fournet-Fayard stepped in and persuaded him to stay.
The Tournament kicked off on February 2nd
at Toulouse with France hosting Switzerland and Morocco facing off against
Austria at the same venue.
Even though Henri
Michel had stated that his starting lineup in the friendly vs. Israel was to be
his ideal side, he was forced to make changes for this match against the Swiss.
Sylvain Kastendeuch
started in defense in place of Yvon Le Roux.
Jean-Marc Ferreri
started in place of the clearly unfit Jose Touré.
Fernandez was
dropped and in his place Pascal Despeyroux started. He had only made his International
debut in the match vs. Israel days before.
Upfront Phillipe
Fargeon started ahead of the out of form Eric Cantona and Yannick Stopyra
started ahead of Bruno Bellone.
Otherwise, Michel maintained
confidence with Bruno Martini in goal, Ayache, Boli and Amoros in defense (with
Amoros as the new captain), Poullain and Passi in midfield.
France started
strong and scored twice within the first ten minutes.
Passi scored from a
volley from the edge of the box in the 7th minute and two minutes
later Fargeon doubled the score.
However, France’s
dominance was short lived as in the 19th minute, Beat Sutter headed
in a corner.
After the bright
beginning France struggled and were poor in the second half.
France would
struggle but maintained their lead to the end of the game.
They would also lose William Ayache for the rest of the Tournament
as he broke his nose in a collision in the 66th minute to be
replaced by Casoni.
This was France’s first win since defeating Iceland on April 29,
1987, a full nine months.
Photo From: Onze, Hors serie 32, 1988
|
(February 2, 1988, France 2-Switzerland 1) |
Photo From: France Football, Issue 2183, February 9, 1988
|
(February 2, 1988, France 2-Switzerland 1) |
Photo From: Onze, Issue 147, March 1988
|
(February 2, 1988, France 2-Switzerland 1) |
On the same day, Josef
Hickersberger made an unhappy debut as Austria National Team Manager as his
team was soundly defeated by Morocco (1-3).
Andreas Ogris had
given Austria the lead in the 32nd minute. Morocco stormed back in the
second half. Mohammed Lachabi tied the match in the 55th minute before Moulay
Hachem El Gharef scored twice more in the 59th
and 65th minutes (the second one a penalty kick).
Incidentally, the Austrian Federation does not
consider this match as an Official one in their records. As a result, Peter
Schoettel and Rupert Marko were not recognized for their first caps until the
next match.
The Second and Last day of matches took place in Monaco on
February 5th.
The Swiss were to take on Austria and France to face off vs.
Morocco for the Final.
The Swiss made two changes from the previous match. Martin
Andermatt started in defense ahead of Martin Weber and upfront Kubilay Turkyilmaz
started ahead of Hans-Peter Zwicker.
The Austrians also made changes as well, Franz
Wohlfahrt started in goal ahead of Klaus Lindenberger, Peter Artner started ahead
of Manfred Zsak and upfront Richard Niederbacher started ahead of Polster.
Since this match was Official, Peter Schoettel
and Rupert Marko made their first Official National appearances (Marko as a
substitute) as did Peter Stoeger later in the match (as a substitute).
The Swiss defeated Austria (2-1) to hand them and Hickersberger
their second defeat in a row.
Marcel Koller opened the scoring for the Swiss in the 25th
minute, scoring off a rebound from a Hermann free kick.
The Austrians tied the match in the 48th minute when
Alain Geiger deflected Richard Niederbacher’s shot into his own net.
Beat Sutter volleyed in Switzerland’s
winner in the 65th minute from Turkyilmaz’s cross.
On the same day France hosted Morocco for the Final. This was
France’s first match at Cote d’Azur since defeating Czechoslovakia (3-0) on September
5, 1970, at Nice.
Henri Michel was forced to make a few changes. Ayache had his
nose broken and thus unavailable. Bernard Casoni started in his place. Casoni
was a central defender for his club but replaced Ayache as an outside back.
Despeyroux was also out as Michel chose to start in midfield with
the more attack minded Dominique Bijotat.
The Monaco crowd jeered Henri Michel, since he had only selected
one Monaco player in his squad (Manuel Amoros). It should be remembered that
Monaco were League leaders at the time and would go on to win the League title
that season and could have had more players in the National team reckoning.
Morocco made two changes from their last match. Abdelmajid Lamriss
replaced Mourad Jabrane in defense and Mohammed Lachabi started ahead of Abderrazak
Khairi.
For France this would be Ferreri and Stopyra’s match, The duo combined
to score near identical goals.
In the 9th minute, Ferreri crossed from the left side
and Stopyra’s header was deflected in the goal by Lamriss.
Photo From: France Football, Issue 2183, February 9, 1988
(February 5, 1988, France 2-Morocco 1)
 |
Photo From: Onze, Issue 147, March 1988
|
(February 5, 1988, France 2-Morocco 1) |
In the 34th minute Morocco tied the match. Kiddi’s cross
from the left side should have been cleared by Boli, but he made an error in
his clearance attempt and Lamriss stepped up to score in from close range.
France scored the winner in the 49th minute, just like
the first goal, Ferreri crossed from the left for Stopyra to head in the winner.
Luis Fernandez did come on as a substitute in the second half.
 |
Photo From: Mondial, new series, issue 96, March 1988
|
(February 5, 1988, France 2-Morocco 1) |
 |
Photo From: Onze, Hors serie 32, 1988
|
(Yannick Stopyra scoring, February 5, 1988, France 2-Morocco 1) |
Despite winning the trophy, France were left with more question
marks than satisfactions.
Any lessons learned were overshadowed with the controversy surrounding
the Fernandez-Amoros affair.
The Press coverage was such that the two players jointly prepared
a statement to minimize the conflict.
In an interview Luis Fernandez gave his version of the events.
Among other things he blamed the media for creating tensions within the squad
once the team had returned from Israel.
He denied ever wanting to leave the squad
(as was reported) but was disappointed for not playing vs. Switzerland.
He added that Henri Michel
had not helped him by lining him up vs. Israel. At the time Fernandez was still
recovering from injury and could have used the rest to be fresher for the remaining
two matches.
Fernandez also believed that
had Michel started him vs. Morocco, it would have greatly helped his morale. This
in turn would have quelled some of the negative rumors about his presence.
French Federation President Jean
Fournet-Fayard scolded Fernandez for his behavior. He criticized him for spending
more time with Journalists than in training. He also reminded that it was Henri
Michel that picked the team not the players.
Fournet-Fayard took the opportunity to
show faith and maintain his confidence in Henri Michel. Michel had been under
pressure due to France’s poor results since the 1986 World Cup.
Henri Michel was sober in his
analysis of France’s performances. He believed they had achieved the minimum in
winning, but the means left a lot to be desired.
He was overall satisfied
despite all the problems (on and off the field).
He stressed in certain spells
during the matches the team performed in a satisfactory manner (most notably the
first twenty minutes vs. Switzerland).
He maintained his confidence
with Fernandez for the future and also expressed satisfaction with the likes of
Ayache, Ferreri, Stopyra, Passi, Martini and Despeyroux.
He was also satisfied for
Casoni as he played in a position (outside back) that was unfamiliar to him and
acquitted himself well, especially in the match vs. Morocco.
He blamed the poor results on
the fitness and form of players during preparations (French League clubs were still
in winter break).
When asked about his teams’ weaknesses,
he said that he preferred to keep to that to himself.
This Tournament failed to
resolve France’s goalkeeper hierarchy, as it still remained unclear whether
Bats was still number one or Martini.
From the French squad only Martini,
Amoros, Boli, Poullain and Passi played all the three matches (friendly vs. Israel
and Tournoi 88 matches).
Eventually Amoros and
Fernandez would reconcile, and Fernandez would regain the captaincy by the end
of the season.
As far as the other teams,
the Swiss appeared to be the best side despite not winning the Tournament.
Austria were still a team in
the making and had to resolve problems. Based on their performances, it seemed unlikely
at the time, but they ended up qualifying for the 1990 World Cup while France
and Switzerland did not.
Morocco gave a decent account
of themselves despite their loss vs. France.
The Tour gave the indication
that France still has a long way to go to qualify for World Cup 1990 and that
would prove to be true as Michel’s days as National Team Manager were numbered,
but that is another story.
References:
Mondial, new series, issue 96, March 1988
Onze, Hors serie 32, 1988
Onze, Issue 146, February 1988
Onze, Issue 147, March 1988
World Soccer, March 1988
France Football, Issue 2183,
February 9, 1988
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