By David Gold
April 6 – Former France winger David Ginola (pictured) has lost his defamation and slander case against former national team coach Gérard Houllier over comments made following a World Cup 1994 qualifier.
France lost 2-1 at home to Bulgaria at the Parc des Princes, Paris, in 1993, a result which meant they missed out on the World Cup in the United States.
A draw would have been good enough to ensure the French qualified, but Ginola overhit a cross in the final minute of the match, and when Bulgaria picked the ball up, they counter attacked to score the winning goal.
Ginola was blamed by Houllier for the defeat, and the ex-Paris St Germain player was cast as a villain in France – playing his last game for his country in 1995, missing out on being part of the 1998 World Cup winning side, who also won the European Championships two years later.
Former Liverpool coach Houllier also criticised Ginola for comments he made about the then Marseille duo Eric Cantona and Jean Pierre Papin.
The rivalry between Marseille and Paris St Germain, who play at the Parc des Princes, is the biggest in France and Houllier claimed that Cantona and Papin suffered the crowd’s fury whenever they played for the national team in Paris as a result of Ginola’s comments.
Ginola left for Newcastle United (pictured above, front) after being frozen out of the French team and sued Houllier after repeating his criticisms of him in a book written by French journalists Daniel Riolo and Christophe Paillet.
The court in Toulon ruled that there were “irregularities” in Ginola’s argument, according to the judge, Didier Guissard.
The ruling also said that Houllier’s comments could not be both public insult and defamation, and that the merits of the case could not, therefore, be truly considered.
Jean Claude Guidicelli, Ginola’s lawyer, told AFP that for his client “this is a decision of [King] Solomon, a goalless match with the ball in the centre”.
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