Gréve Grève? (See Me Speaking French There? Recognize!)
By: Martha | October 12th, 2008
“Strike? What strike? Leave me alone, I’m scoring goals over here!”
Please help, French-speakers. I can’t find anything about the threatened strike in English, and trying to figure something this complicated out through Google Translate is bound to end in disaster. My understanding, superficial as it is, is that if the LFP go through with their plans to give club presidents an absolutely majority on their board, the UNPF are threatening to strike the following weekend. If the strike happens, there (theoretically) won’t be any matches during October 24-26. Is that close to what’s going on?
Though this is a L1 and L2-wide issue, it’s turning up a lot in the context of Nice because a)Lionel Letizi is vice-president of the UNPF, and b)Maurice Cohen seems to be the only club president speaking out loudly against the strike. According to Cohen, if the UNPF go through with the strike, he’ll both send out academy players against Bordeaux (no word on who they’ll play if, you know, there’s a strike and no one from Bordeaux shows up) and dock Nice players 25% of their salaries for the month. Though no one else actually seems to be talking like he is, Cohen claims to only be speaking the party line, and that all the other club presidents agree with him. Letizi, meanwhile, is Letizi: Quiet and thoughtful in supporting the possibility of a strike but hoping it doesn’t come to that.
Alright, so here are my questions, French-speakers, and those familiar with the labor situation in French football: What are the chances of a strike actually happening and, if it does, will it have any effect at all on the LFP, or will they just become more sure that club presidents need to run things? Any other thoughts are welcome, as well, about evil socialists or blood-sucking owners — whatever you’ve got works for me.
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Comments
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Martha, I did a main page post on this last week — not sure if this will clear up anything or not. There are also a couple of excellent articles in goal.com (in English!!!) Links to both are in the post if you haven’t already seen them.
http://www.theoffside.com/world-football/battle-of-the-acronyms-as-france-prepares-for-a-strike.htmlBut yes, you’ve got the gist of it. And I’m still amazed by your ability to figure out anything through Google translate.
Posted from
United States
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This strike thing! I don’t like.
But look! http://www.footmercato.net/ol-loic-remy-une-erreur-de-casting_article26175.html
They’re suggesting that OL buy back Remy. Maybe you were right..
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United States -
Rumor is that there is a clause on Remy’s contact that would Lyon to buy him back (or at least get first option should Nice decide to sell Remy). It’s funny, the media has been totally wtf about Lyon selling Remy so they could buy Piquionne. Then again, had Remy stayed at OL, he wouldn’t have been able to play as a starter, so moving to Nice was win win for both sides.
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United States -
Thanks, Laurie! (I think understanding is easier when there are a billion articles you can feed to google — that way, you can at least figure out which giberish is closest to accurate.)
I’d love to know from anyone whether this has any chance of a)happening, or b)having an effect. There’s a history of strikes in professional sports in the US, does one exist in France or, indeed, anywhere in Europe?
See, Jennifer? Everyone’s gonna want him if he stays healthy, and Nice just won’t be able to hold on to him.
Inara, I trust that clause also involves a criminally low price?
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United States -
Martha, you used the wrong accent mark in “grève.” It is accent “grave” not “aigu.”
Posted from
United States -
Jeez, Julien, just rain on my parade, why don’t you!
(Did I really? I double-checked it, too. Dammit. Will go fix, thanks.)
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United States -
I don’t know how low the price will be. I’m guessing it’s mainly allowing Lyon the opportunity to match whatever is offered by other clubs. So it really depends on Remy’s market value in two years. If it inflates, then Lyon will have to pay it, but if it doesn’t, then Lyon would pay less. At the very least, Nice will recoup what they paid last season and probably earn a couple of million more. But I don’t think Nice will be able to earn big bucks of Remy, simply because they don’t have the strong bargaining position that clubs like Marseille and Lyon have.
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United States -
Saw your comment from the HABs offside…
Oh Martha, you know me too well =PPosted from
United States -
Oh, and if you know one foreign language, and you see how Google translates that, you can sort of figure out what it’s saying in other languages.
For example, I know Italian, and I know how online translators say certain things, so I can figure out what it means when it says something like “the it will come to stadium the Nice” =PPosted from
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When it comes to Inter, mele, you’re as predictable as I am! Just, you know, in the other direction.
(I only speak English, sadly, so your trick won’t help me. I have, however, figured out that Google ALWAYS screws up personal pronouns and, of late, has been changing every team name out for a team in the EPL. What the hell is that about?)
Posted from
United Kingdom
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