Platini's Magic Square
Les Bleus: The History of French Football
Course 1 · Chapter 6 · Platini and the Magic Square
In the 1980s France, for the first time, had a national team that was among the best in the world, built round the midfielder Michel Platini. It lost the most famous semi-final in its history in 1982, won the European Championship at home in 1984 and reached another World Cup semi-final in 1986. Then it fell away, missed two World Cups, and saw the club side Olympique de Marseille win the European Cup and be disgraced within months. Names, dates and scores are from general knowledge and flagged "check".
The Man and the Team
Michel Platini
Born in 1955 in Joeuf, a steel town in Lorraine, to a family of Italian descent (check). He played for Nancy, Saint-Étienne (Chapter 5) and then Juventus from 1982 to 1987, and won the Ballon d'Or three years running, 1983 to 1985 (check). He was a creative midfielder who scored many goals, especially from free kicks.
The coach
Michel Hidalgo, a former player, was the national coach from 1976 to 1984. He built a team round Platini and from the Saint-Étienne and Nantes players of the 1970s, with an emphasis on attacking play and a good atmosphere in the squad (check).
The carré magique
The "magic square" was the midfield of Platini, Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana and Luis Fernandez, which played together in the mid-1980s (check). Giresse and Tigana were small, quick players; Fernandez was the ball-winner; Platini the playmaker. Tigana was born in Mali and Fernandez in Spain, both examples of the mixed origins of the squad (Chapter 7).
Séville, 1982
- The tournament. France went to the 1982 World Cup in Spain and lost its first game to England, who scored after 27 seconds through Bryan Robson (check). It recovered to reach the semi-final.
- The match. The semi-final against West Germany, in Séville on 8 July 1982, finished 1-1 and then went to extra time. France led 3-1, but Germany scored twice to level at 3-3 (check).
- The collision. In the second half the German goalkeeper, Harald Schumacher, ran out and collided with the French defender Patrick Battiston, who was knocked unconscious and badly injured. No foul was given, and the incident is one of the best known in the history of the World Cup (check).
- The penalties. Germany won the first penalty shoot-out in the tournament's history, 5-4 (check). France then lost the third-place match to Poland and finished fourth.
- The meaning. The French public felt that the team had been unjustly beaten, and the match became a story of near-triumph. German and neutral writers tell a more balanced account, in which the failure to protect a lead and to finish chances is also stressed (check).
Euro 1984 and Mexico 1986
| Event (check each) | Result |
|---|---|
| Euro 1984 group stage | Wins over Denmark (1-0), Belgium (5-0) and Yugoslavia (3-2), with Platini scoring a hat-trick in each of the last two. |
| Euro 1984 semi-final | France 3-2 Portugal after extra time, in Marseille, Platini scoring the winner late in extra time. |
| Euro 1984 final | France 2-0 Spain at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Platini scored from a free kick that went through the goalkeeper's hands, and Bruno Bellone scored the second. It was France's first major title. |
| World Cup 1986 | France beat Italy in the round of 16 and Brazil on penalties in the quarter-final, after a 1-1 draw. It lost the semi-final to West Germany 2-0 and beat Belgium in the third-place match. |
Platini scored nine goals in five matches at Euro 1984, still a record for a single European Championship (check). After 1986 the team aged and Platini retired from international football in 1987. France then failed to qualify for the 1990 World Cup and, after a defeat by Bulgaria at the Parc des Princes in 1993, for the 1994 World Cup (check). It also went out in the first round of Euro 1992 (check).
Marseille, 1993
| Point (check each) | Detail |
|---|---|
| The owner | Bernard Tapie, a businessman and politician, who bought the club in 1986 and invested heavily. |
| The triumph | On 26 May 1993 Marseille beat AC Milan 1-0 in Munich, with a header by Basile Boli, to win the first Champions League under that name. It remains the only French club to win the main European competition. |
| The scandal | Days before the final, Marseille played Valenciennes in the league. Investigators later found that Marseille officials had tried to bribe Valenciennes players to ease off (check). |
| The punishment | Marseille was stripped of the 1992 to 1993 league title and administratively relegated to the second division (check). Tapie was later convicted and received a prison sentence (check). The Champions League title was kept. |
The affair damaged the standing of French football and led to changes in club finance and regulation (check). It is one of the best documented cases in the sport, so the charges and verdicts can be stated from court records.
A Note on Heysel
Platini's years in Italy included the 1985 European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, where 39 people died in a crush before the match (check). The final was played and Juventus won with a penalty by Platini. His role and reactions have been discussed ever since, and the event is remembered as a tragedy first and a sporting event second (check). It is mentioned here because it is part of the record of the period and for no other reason.
Exercises
Write two paragraphs comparing the French team of 1982 and that of 1984: what changed, and why was one a heartbreak and the other a triumph?
Apply the six-question method (Chapter 1) to the claim "France was robbed in Séville in 1982".
Separate what is documented from what is rumour or opinion in the Marseille affair of 1993, and say what each kind of source would add.
Quick Reference
- People: Michel Platini, Michel Hidalgo, Giresse, Tigana, Fernandez, Bernard Tapie
- 1982: Séville, 3-3 with West Germany, lost on penalties; fourth place (check)
- 1984: European Championship won at home, 2-0 over Spain
- 1993: Marseille win the Champions League, then are punished for the Valenciennes affair