Thursday 11 October 2012

Jocelyn Angloma interview on Guadeloupe


In a long career that took in spells at Paris St Germain, Marseille, Torino and Inter Milan, Jocelyn Angloma travelled a long way from his native Abymes in Guadeloupe but never forgot his Caribbean home.

Five years after winning the last of 37 caps for France, he turned his back on Les Bleus and belatedly went on to make another 14 international appearances for Guadeloupe. Despite regularly qualifying for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in recent years - and reaching the semi-finals in 2007 - Guadeloupe cannot join FIFA and try to qualify for the World Cup finals due to the island's political status as a French department.

And that should not change according to Angloma, who is now assistant manager to Guadeloupe and recently travelled with a team of locally-based players to the latest edition of the 2012 Coupe de l'Outre Mer in Paris. To hear an interview with Jocelyn Angloma, pictured above at the Guadeloupe squad's hotel at Lisses north of Paris, click here.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

French Guiana interview


The latest edition of Le Coupe de l'Outre Mer in Paris was not a huge success for French Guiana (pictured).

The French territory located on the tip of North America had a difficult opening game against Reunion, the Indiean Ocean island that won the inaugaral tournament in 2008. Reunion beat French Guiana 2-0 in Versailles and would go on to win the latest edition of the biannual competition for French colonies.

A member of the Caribbean Football Union but prevented from joining FIFA due to being a department of France, French Guiana had an equally difficult second match against a strong Guadeloupe XI at the Stade Bauer in Saint Ouen.

French Guiana were easily beaten 4-2 by Guadeloupe, before going on to finish their group fixtures with a 11-1 win over the tiny French territory of St Pierre et Miquelon at the Parc des Sports, also in Saint-Ouen.

The tournament did end on a bright note after a 2-1 win over Oceania champions Tahiti in a play-off for fifth place in Clairefontaine, but a campaign that was always going to be difficult for French Guiana was made even more so by their own federation.

French Guiana's manager was forced to watch his side's matches in Paris from the stands after being served with a four match ban by his own federation before flying out of Cayenne to Paris. The ban came after a dispute with another official in a car park after a game back home in Cayenne. 

To hear details of this dispute plus more on football in French Guiana, listen to an interview with the team's manager here.