Monday, 19 November 2012

2012 Coupe de l'Outre Mer photo gallery

 New Caledonia in training at Clairefontaine, where the Pacific islanders stayed during the latest Coupe de l’Outre Mer along with three other squads: Tahiti, Mayotte and Martinique.
Mayotte and Tahiti players board the bus to Issy-les-Moulineaux on ther outskirts of southern Paris, where the two teams will face each other in the opening round of the 2012 Coupe de l’Outre Mer.
Mayotte and Tahiti players walk out at FC Issy.
The half-time entertainment during the opening round of matches at the home of FC Issy. 
Mayotte’s explosive striker Chamsidine Attoumani from the ESP d’Iloni club leaves the field after his hat-trick destroyed 2012 Oceania Cup winners Tahiti, 3-1.
2010 winners Martinique, who would go on to make the latest final only to lose to Reunion. The same two sides have contested every final of Le Coupe de l’Outre Mer since the biennial tournament was first staged in 2008. 

 Former Real Madrid star and 1998 World Cup Christian Karembeu arrives with lady-friends to watch his native New Caledonia take on holders Martinique. 
An exhausted St Pierre et Miquelon defender with a TV presenter after his team’s 10-0 thumping from Reunion.
 The virtually empty main stand at Red Star’s Stade Baeur in Saint Ouen shortly before Reunion take on St Pierre et Miquelon, a tiny French territory off eastern Canada.
Steve Marlet talks to the media before kick-off at Stade Bauer, where the Former Fulham and France player is now on the coaching staff. Marlet is eligible to play for Martinque, but he turned down an opportunity to come out of retirement and play again.
In the stands at Stade Baeur, the French Guiana squad look on unimpressed as St Pierre et Miquelon struggle to cope with eventual winners Reunion.
A French Guiana player prefers to reads up on his team’s next opponents Guadeloupe rather than watch the preceeding game.
Guadeloupe’s side before their 4-2 win over French Guiana.

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.