The Chaos & Corruption of French Football 

Isn't it crazy how much football fans can overlook when it comes to their favorite team/player? Absolutely insane!

The issue seems to be general corruption in football, not a specific federation. You have pretty much done a story of corruption for all European football nations. It seems big money, egos, and government lead to dirty business. As a Canadian, I can't get enough of the constant drama. It is a consistent source of wonderful entertainment. Thanks Alfie!

Gotta say for the nature of your videos and the work that must come with putting them together your output has been phenomenal recently!

As a french football fan, I have to congratulate you for this brillant summary of the French football chaos. It is really shocking to have all these cases in one place to realize how fucked the system is ! Also a lot of fun with french pronouciations ahaha.

I would also like to clarify something. No, we didn’t have high hopes in 2010. We all knew the team was in shambles before the tournament, as illustrated by a loss to China's B Team before the start of the World Cup. No one was trusting this team. Still, it somehow managed to disappoint us

When people say keep politics out of football don't realise that football is inherently political and unfortunately those politics are and always have been dragged through the shit, man football is one of the most polarising sports, it's so fun and exciting to watch but the corruption that is rife throughout the entire game from all corners of the globe really tests that

You would wonder why Ligue 1 has trailed well behind the other major leagues for most of its history on account of the size of France and how strong the French national team is and the insane amount of talent being produced in that country, France is an economic powerhouse so you would think that they would have a wealthier football league I mean Spain with a smaller population has a league La Liga that has in general been light years ahead of Ligue 1 and far more successful in European competitions so you would wonder why there's such a gulf in class when football is hardly a backwater sport in France is it

As a matter of fact the Dutch and Portuguese leagues have both been more successful than the French league throughout history but yet they aren't currently regarded as being in the top 5 while France is

Just when you think things can't get more ridiculous in this video it just gets worse and worse looool, french football is truly a mess

French FA in 2010: "We want a new direction of management, a clean break, this one doesn´t work....let´s vote for the guy who was vice president to the previous president for almost a decade!" You can´t make those things up ^^ Also the Benzema-Valbuena scandal is way less straightforward than what is mentioned here (I assume for brevity´s sake): some "friends" (apparently childhood acquaintances from the poor area he grew up in) from Benzema hacked Valbuena´s phone to extract the video and asked for money to not release it publicly. Then when Valbuena initially refused to pay Benzema suddenly approached Valbuena in a national team training session, and recommended him he should pay, that they only had one copy of the video and it would be deleted if he paid. That´s when Valbuena went to court and accused him of blackmail, since he had inside knowledge of the plot. Until that point Valbuena didn´t know Benzema had a connection to the hackers.

Proper comment: It is a profound shame that the French Football Federation does not live up to the talent of the French national team, and an even greater shame that there will be no consequences for their abject failure to do so.

When even the president of the country becomes a simple errand deliverer for Qatar, asking Mbappé to stay in Paris when he's supposed to not favour any football team in France for example, you can imagine the amount of corruption in French football.

I live and France and I know about all this feuds and scandals, but I never thought than French football as chaotic. But hearing you summerise everything all of that in this video is scary

I would kindly request a "What on Earth is Going On at..." video about Sampdoria. They're dead last in Serie A, have had an ownership change due to their previous owner having been arrested for fraud, and their players haven't been paid because the club itself is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Kept thinking the video was gonna end and then you’d just bring up another. Scary to think what some of these people think they can get away with. Thanks Alfie

This entire video is a smokescreen just so Alfie could post that tennis photo lmao.

Would love for you to do a video on Frances women's coach

Your videos been off the hook. Thanks for the amount of work to put together these great videos.

A while ago u did the best Prem XI. Can u do the worst? Would be fun to see. Throwing in a manager as well would be very interesting.

Thank you for bringing these issues to the broader public, many of these problems have stayed within France for years.

Day 8: The despot president of Bangladesh Football Federation

Nothing I like more than to come home on a Friday evening and watch one of your excellent videos keep them comeing

Ngl, this really caught me by surprise, even if corruption and sleaziness in the world of football shouldn't be too surprising at this stage

This is a wild story! Great video as always❤

Stellar work as usual sir.

You could expand this to "France is in crisis", because France is always in crisis

I do recently know that my beloved nation France's league is becoming corrupted due to one of the only moments for now,Paris Saint Germain who despite they are one of my favourites,have just bankrolled the French Ligue 1 on the whole for more than eleven years as well as the recent protests against the president Emmanuel Macron sir which were chaotic,good friends!!!I am grieving about the French football at this moment of time but I am fully hoping for the French Football Federation to rectify and solve the issue big time,good friends!!!ALLEZ FRENCH FOOTBALL!!!🇨🇵

The best football doc channel, no stupid jokes and very intelligent takes

I'm not gonna assume that you read my comment asking for this video, but I'm gonna thank you for doing it

I’m kinda late to this vid, but your content is for sure the only genuine football journalism right now

Normally I would complain about pronunciations and stuff like that but for the amount of work you put into these videos, it's one of those rare occasions where I'll let it pass. To say it's a thorough investigation is up there for understatement of the month.

I would like for there to be a part II. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!

Wow so much intricacies 👍 any chance for a video about Maltese Football please?

a person being in the top 1000 at anything on this planet is quite an achievement... there are 7 billion people

"Indeed" shows Ndidi. Oh my word. HAHAHAHA

Brilliant video. Almost exhausting to watch though.

Love these very informative.

Thanks for the dissertation. Great work.

Please make a video on the following topics: -The drama/scandal surrounding Gregg Berhalter and Gio Reyna’s parents during the 2022 FIFA World Cup -Ranking all of the goals that won the FIFA World Cup Goal of the Tournament Award -The Dortmund bus bombing in 2017 right before their Champions League Quarterfinal against Monaco

Please make a video on the following topics: Hi Alfie, thank you for including two of my ideas for future videos (Corrine Diacre’s controversial/toxic tenure as the manager of France’s Women’s National team which lead her to get sacked last month and The alleged attack on Kheira Hamaroui by her own former PSG Teammate Aminata Diallo) into this video!!

Best football channel by far

Do the same type of video for Mexico Football. It is a lot worse than any other federation when it comes to corruption

im not a French football supporter but they ,hands down, have ALWAYS had the nicest national team kit..very classy look. love the pinstripe detail

Alfie, would you consider make two separate videos that go more in-depth about 1.Corrine Diacre’s controversial/toxic tenure as the manager of France’s Women’s National team which lead her to get sacked last month and 2.The alleged attack on Kheira Hamaroui by her own former PSG Teammate Aminata Diallo) into this video

Amazing research Alfie...👍🖖✊️

Posting for the 13th time: I created an all-time XI with no overlap of international careers - no player was active for their national team at the same time as any other player. Here it is (with the years of each player's international career listed in parentheses): 🇩🇪 Oliver Kahn (1995 - 2006) 🇩🇪 Manfred Kaltz (1975 - 1983), 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bob Crompton (1902 - 1914), 🇧🇷 Thiago Silva (2008 - ), 🇩🇪 Andreas Brehme (1984 - 1994) 🇺🇾 José Leandro Andrade (1923 - 1930), 🇮🇹 Ugo Locatelli (1936 - 1940) 🇮🇹 Valentino Mazzola (1942 - March 1949) 🇧🇷 Pelé (1957 - 1971), 🇧🇷 Neco (1917 - 1922), 🇭🇺 Zoltán Czibor (May 1949 - 1956) Manager: 🇨🇿 Karel Petrů (1931 - 1935) If you choose to ignore the position of manager, Ugo Locatelli can be replaced in midfield by 🇦🇷 Antonio Sastre (1933 - 1941). How about making a video featuring an XI you created using this limitation (and without using uncapped players)?

I am once again asking for a video about Algeria's unofficial FLN team (1958-1962) Which to be honest is thematically relevant to this video

Alfie pointed the machine gun to french football and simply didn't stopped. Brilliant stuff

The sarcasm is just dripping off this video

Earned a Subscribe just for the image of Ndidi while saying "Indeed..." 😂

The goat of football videos. Love ur sarcasm

Sometimes just go straight to the point😂😂😂 my head is paining me😅 any ways you are doing a good job. Well done.

You and Vizeh keep the spark alive ❤

The Canal plus fiasco really displayed to me how stuffed French football was even at the very top level, nevermind grassroots

God bless u fam this is going to help me do a whole assignment for school 🙏🏽🙏🏽

Great and deep diving video. Gaultier sounds like an absolute chad btw. Sometimes you need to call it what it is.

I know this isn’t relevant but there’s like a sports week going on at my college and they made us watch Alfie's video on 7 countries where football isn’t the most popular sport. Idk thought that was a valid anecdote to slap under this video

Zinedine Zidane should run for FFF president

At minute 7:00 the picture you used is of the King of Bahrain and not the Emir of Qatar. Secondly, the Emir of Qatar at the time was Hamad Bin Khalid and not Hamad Bin Jassim as you mentioned. 7:00

Amazing video, had no idea of the level of insanity that exists in that countrys FA. Makes their achievements on the pitch in the past 20 years even more amazing

Rimet seems to have been one of those people who did his best in trying circumstances, and genuinely had the best interests of the sport he loved at heart. Even if the trophy isn't actually named after him any more, I think it speaks volumes about his influence on the game that I thought it was, until a few minutes ago, because that's how I've always known it. Without knowing too much about his life, I feel it's an honour he absolutely deserves - maybe if I did know more, I would think otherwise, and I'm open to that as well.

5:55 the trophy actually has some creative nicknames around the world. "Hercules Trophy" in China for example.

Of course that great Marseille side during the early 90s ended up being embroiled in scandal and were forcibly relegated shortly after winning the European Cup in 1993 so this goes back some way

Alfie at @5.53: "[the Jules Rimet trophy] had been stolen, melted down by thieves in Brazil...". The image used: longtime FIFA president João Havelange... a Brazilian. Never change, Alfie!

Hi Alfie, just for info Guingamp is pronounced "gang-gong", I live not far from there! Apart from that, fantastic video!

30:37 Wait, this looks similar to what happened with PSG's advertising video for 2024, which only contained Mbappé, who blamed his club for this. Is this really a different incident with the French national team, or did you make a confusion.

Please do a video on Jonas Hector the international who went down with his club rejected every offer from liverpool chelsea etc retired from national team as beeing an first team player he just announced retirement and was one of the few knights of loyality in football he earned it

Video idea - history of Queen's Park FC

Alfie, please can you do a video on Tottenham and what is going on there?

I see Chaos, and I see France, and I put a like. Really love chaos in France

And still none of this includes the organisation of the 2022 Champions League final in which police actively tried to cause mass death outside the Stade de France, and FFF and UEFA blamed fans arriving late, a complete bare-faced lie, for being trapped in cages while sprayed with tear gas and aiming rifles at crowds exiting the stadium after the match causing stampedes while local criminals mugged, stabbed and held people at gunpoint.

You have to make one of argentinian football, thus covering both teams of the WC final

shocking great vid. Knew some not all of it

I will never forgive the french FA for refusing to give a balloon d'or in 2020. Lewa deserved better.

One thing Ligue 1 could do is do a salary cap. They would be the first top 5 league in Europe to do so. It will probably greatly improve other clubs fans participation. Tv deals and more if the league was more even.

Can you do a video about the 2010/2011 match fixing scandal in turkey ?

The amount of research that you (and your team?) do is staggering.

i hit the like button before i even see the video because it’s the people’s channel

Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 487) I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.

Nice. We waiting a week for the next episode? 😂

If you disappear, we'll know it was Al-Khalafi.

Simon Jordan wasn't a fan of Nasser Al-Khelafi, but after he met with him, all of a sudden, he thought he was great, and a really smart businessmen.

Slowly falling out of love with football

And still you didn't mention the gun attack that occurred against ngolo kante

this is a lot crazier than canadian french football (ice hockey in quebec)

Thank you for not highlighting Palhinha could leave Fulham, we're all trying to hush those rumours 😄

Holy shit!! I wanna know more about Corinne Diacre though

Day 10: best XI Brazilians that played for other nations

Just a shame an underdog like Lens won't win it this season. That would have been an amazing story.

It’s so mad to think how most people don’t realise just how corrupt France and world Football truly is💀

The pronunciation of Guingamp in this video “Djangong” 😂😂

Mirrors the state of French society.💥🔥

26:45 Elye Wahi right?

Oh my gosh. Corruption in a big football league? Impossible! 🥴

One of the greatest conundrums in football is why Ligue 1 isn't leveraging the football factories that is the banlieues to make the league a juggernaut!

I am starting to worry that some Peter Thiel-type dude is going to come for Alfie before too long...

Do you think he might have any Le Graët?

Kinda funny you choose France when Juventus just got their 15 points back and the leaugue is 1 billion in debt but anyway great video and effort

I hope these drama off the pitch won’t affect the French players when they play wc or euro. This is probably one of the most talented French squad we have seen in a while. It would be a waste if they don’t win any more titles bc of these dumb drama.

Reminds me of Hockey Canada. After the junior championships members of Team Canada r worded a woman in a hotel and were involved in a settlement which HC misused pandemic funds to pay off. Also HC was involved in several hazing allegations by former players and staff among other incidents. Look it up if it interests you