THE FRENCH MEDIA have dished out more brickbats than bouquets to the national team in recent times, but yesterday journalists gave Lilian Thuram warm applause after the defender’s eloquent riposte to racist comments by Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right movement.

Le Pen suggested on Monday that the country could not empathise with the side because there were too many non-white players. “We feel that France doesn’t totally recognise itself in this team,” he said.

“[Le Pen’s] the type of person who would turn on the television and watch a game of basketball and wonder to himself: ‘Hold on, there are black people playing in the American NBA. What’s going on?,’ ” Thuram, France’s most-capped player, who was born on the French-Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, said.

“When we take to the field, we do so as Frenchmen. All of us. It doesn’t matter if we’re black or not, because we’re French. I’ve just got one thing to say to Jean-Marie Le Pen. The French team are all very, very proud to be French. So vive la France, but the true France. Not the France that he wants.”

France will have enough problems dealing with the men in yellow shirts, let alone the man giving out yellow cards, when they face Brazil. Ratomir Dujkovic, the Ghana coach, accused the officials of bias towards Brazil after his side lost 3-0 in the round of 16. Luis Medina Cantalejo, the Spaniard who gave Italy a dubious penalty against Australia, will referee the quarter-final tomorrow.

Thierry Henry does not care who the referee is. “We gave up after the first game [against Switzerland] worrying about the referee,” the France forward said. “It’s not easy to be a referee.”

Lubos Michel, the referee for Brazil’s win over Ghana, allegedly asked for Ronaldo’s shirt after the match. “Who wouldn’t want Ronaldo’s shirt? It might have been the only chance he’ll ever have to meet him, so there’s nothing sinister in that,” Henry said.

Zinédine Zidane missed training yesterday because of a knock suffered in the 3-1 win over Spain but is expected to be fit for tomorrow’s game.