Rio de Janeiro: France coach Didier Deschamps on Saturday made a sensational claim that a drone had spied on his team’s training session at Ribeirao Preto in Sao Paulo state. France’s opening game in the tournament was against Honduras in Porto Alegre on Sunday.
According to the 1998 World Cup winner, using drones to know opponents’ strategy is common nowadays. He added that Fifa has already launched an
investigation.
“Apparently drones are used more and more,” Deschamps was quoted assaying in a press conference. “It’s not up to me. Fifa handles this and has been carrying out an inquiry; we don’t want any intrusion into our privacy. It’s very hard to fight this these days.”
The claim of France is extraordinary because Les Bleus are in the easiest group in the World Cup and the fight is apparently only for the second place among Honduras, Ecuador and Switzerland. Honduras is an impoverished country and may not have the financial muscle to hire a drone, an unmanned aircraft used mainly in military operations.
The joke is on France who crashed out of the 2010 World Cup following a dire performance. Fighting within the team off the field grabbed more attention in South Africa. Les Bleus also needed a playoff to come to Brazil. Maybe the teams in Group E pooled in money to send a drone above France’s training ground to know how not to prepare for a World Cup match.
