Former French Coach Outraged: "It's like a violation of my soul"

Raymond Domenech, the former French national team coach, has reacted with outrage to the Netflix documentary chronicling the French squad's disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign, labeling the production an "extraordinarily violent attack" on his character.

In a letter published on social media platform X, the 74-year-old coach, who led the team during the infamous Knysna strike in South Africa, expressed his fury. "I feel hurt and betrayed: this resonates like a violation of my soul. A theft of my emotions from a moment," Domenech wrote.

The documentary delves into the calamitous 2010 World Cup, marked by the players' strike, where they famously refused to leave the team bus and boycotted a training session in front of global cameras. This episode was compounded by Nicolas Anelka's expulsion following an argument with the coach at halftime of a match, and catastrophic on-field results.

Domenech accused the documentary of bias and sensationalism. "It should have been a documentary of explanation. Instead, it was an extraordinarily violent attack against me personally," he lamented, describing the work as "a totally accusatory film of nauseating partiality." According to the coach, the production failed to honor their agreement, denying him the "right of review over everything," a condition he had imposed for his participation.

"They pick the juiciest excerpts, cut, edit, arrange, and you get a sensationalist film whose only purpose is to stir up trouble," criticized Domenech, who felt targeted by "tremendous dishonesty" from the production team.

Regarding the excerpts from his personal diary cited in the documentary, some containing harsh words about his players, the former coach argued they were never intended for publication. He explained that, like any intimate diary, they "allow, in that moment, a woman or a man, overwhelmed from all sides, to keep going."

Domenech concluded his letter by completely disassociating himself from the project. "I want to strongly distance myself from this documentary," he stated, believing it "honors neither football nor journalism."

The coach managed the senior French national team between 2004 and 2010, after previously coaching the French U-21 squad. He returned to active management in 2020/21 for a brief stint on the Nantes bench.