Cave rescue man could sue billionaire
FRANCE’S VICTORIOUS World Cup team have returned home from Russia to a red carpet welcome ahead of a victory parade in Paris – and the news that the players and their coach would receive the country’s highest accolade,the Légion d’Honneur.
Goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris, brandishing the golden trophy, and coach Didier Deschamps led the team from the Air France plane to the tarmac at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Airport personnel and French sports minister Laura Flessel, a former champion fencer, were the first to tell them “merci” on behalf of a grateful nation.
“Eternal Happiness” read Monday’s headline in French sports daily summing up the mood of many who hope the euphoria will last for months.
The team was expected to take a victory lap down the grand Champs-Elysees, the grand Paris avenue where hundreds of thousands thronged after France’s 4-2 victory on Sunday night over Croatia to capture the trophy for the second time. For a third day in a row, the avenue was transformed into a boulevard of pride following a Bastille Day parade of French military might on Saturday that, in hindsight, was a preview for the elation of France’s World Cup win.
The team’s appearance on the Champs-Elysees was due to be followed by a reception at the presidential palace.
Hundreds of guests, including people from football clubs connected to the French players, were invited. A club in the poor suburb where 19-year-old star player Kylian Mbappe grew up is among them.
Several Paris Metro stations were temporarily adjusting their names to honour the team and its members, the transport authority tweeted. The Champs-Elysees Clemenceau has become the Deschamps-Elysees Clemenceau to honour national team coach Didier Deschamps. The Etoile station is, for now, “On a 2 Etoiles” (We have 2 stars), to denote France’s second World Cup, 20 years after Zinedine Zidane and Deschamps himself led Les Bleus to a 3-0 win over Brazil on home soil.
The Victor Hugo station is now Victor Hugo Lloris, after France’s goalie and team captain. Celebrations were spread across the nation, and among the still-dazed French players themselves.
“We are linked for life now with this cup,” defender Raphael Varane told BFM-TV on Monday before departing from Moscow. French president Emmanuel Macron clearly hoped the World Cup glow would give him a boost in a nation where his economic reforms have drawn protests.
It was the players, though, who captured the French imagination. The mostly youthful, diverse team represents a generation with which traditionalists have yet to come to terms.
Despite the euphoria, there was alo violence on Sunday night. French media reported that authorities detained 90 people for questioning in the Paris region and some 290 around France.
Meanwhile, authorities in Moscow have charged members of the punk protest group Pussy Riot with “violation of spectators’ rights” and illegally wearing police symbols when they ran onto the field during the World Cup final. Three men and a woman dressed in police uniforms interrupted the match early in the second half at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
A British expat who helped with the rescue of 12 schoolboys trapped in a cave is considering legal action against billionaire Elon Musk for a tweet apparently labelling him a paedophile.
The comment came amid a spat between Mr Musk and Vern Unsworth, a Briton living in Thailand, who had experience of the caves.
When Mr Musk offered his help, posting videos online how “a tiny, kid-size submarine” could be used, Mr Unsworth branded it a “PR stunt”.