France Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

French Soccer Stars Will Face Charges For Sexing 16-Year-Old Prostitute
Bayern's Franck Ribery and Real Madrid's Karim Benzema got into a spot of trouble in 2010, when a Paris prostitution ring was busted and their names popped up in a little black book. Even worse, it turned out they had paid for sex with then-16-year-old Zahia Dehar, who, in the players' defense, didn...

Nic Batum Delivered A Mighty Nutshot To Juan Carlos Navarro In The Closing Moments Of Today's France-Spain Game
Spain knocked France out of the Olympic men's basketball tournament, though the French team delivered a final blow—in the form of a Nic Batum punch to Juan Carlos Navarro's nether-regions....

Hours After Defeat, An Australian Rower Was Smashing Store Windows: Foreign Olympics News That Couldn't Fit On The Desk Of Bob Costas
Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics. ...

Here's The Absolute Worst Draft Analysis Written Today
It's early—like, 14 hours after the draft, and we empirically don't know how any of the players chosen will perform in the NBA—but I think we have already a winner for the trollingest post-draft column. To be fair to the Denver Post's Mark Kiszla, his job is to stir up shit. But this is something sp...

108-Foot Roy Hodgson Erected On English Coast
"Roy the Redeemer" was unveiled this week, a massive statue of England manager aping the famous Christ sculpture in Brazil. He stands above the cliffs of Dover, and is supposedly visible from France. (The two nations face each other on Monday.)...

Patrice Evra Wipes His "Backside" With A Teammate's Shirt, France Beside Itself
What you see here is, evidently, a grown man and professional athlete wiping his "backside" with a shirt and then sniffing it. This quote, which is being attributed to a Parisian magazine, Le 10 Sport evidences France's apoplexy....

Zinedine Zidane's Headbutt Is Now Art
Among the works of Adel Abdessemed, now on display at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York, is this sculpture commemorating the ignominious, agressive end of Zidane's 2006 World Cup....

BBC Tries its Damnedest Not To Show Streaker At Six Nations Match, Shows Streaker Anyway
The Beeb's a paragon of good taste and proper culture, which rather makes you wonder how the Six Nations rugby competition ends up on its esteemed airways. (Or this.) Yet there it is, and in today's match featuring France against Scotland in Edinburgh the BBC found itself face-to-face with a nake...

Rugby Star's Dad Rushes Onto Pitch To Protect Him During Fight, Singlehandedly Ruins Hard-Fought Reputation For Ruggers Worldwide
Even rugby stars can have helicopter parents, as French number 8 Imanol Harinordoquy learned when shit went down between his Biarritz club and rival Bayonne in France's top division....

A Rugby World Cup Final Preview For Americans Who Don't Know Shit About Rugby But Like Hakas
Chris Benz and Dave Shireley will be filing dispatches from the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, in the odd moments that they are sober. For a rugby glossary and position guide, click here....

"Fiers De Vous Nourrir" Must Be French For "Look At This Giant Bike We Made Out Of Hay Bales"
Okay, it actually means that the farmers of 44 are "proud to feed you [and also they made a giant bike out of hay bales and tractors]." This display went up during a Tour de France stage earlier in the week, so we're a bit late — but we wanted to share it with you because it is a wonderful represe...

Basketball Training Of The Future Is Terrifying And Nauseating
Our French tipster Antoine sent this in with the subject line "ro basketball team training with robots," perhaps because he's aware of our constant fear of the Robot Uprising. But the Futuroscope that helped Poitiers Basket 86 develop their spatial recognition or some such nonsense doesn't inspire...

Last Night's Winner: Goat To Hero In Just Two Missed Free Throws
VCU product Jamal Shuler steps to the free throw line with 6 seconds left, his French team up one. What happens next, c'est incroyable....

Anelka Laughs Snootily At French Ban
After being handed an 18-match ban, effectively ending his international career: "They are real clowns these people. I'm dying with laughter." Meanwhile, Ribery got a 3-match suspension, and is dying with whatever his underage hooker gave him. [AFP]...

France Comes Up With Highly Symbolic, Largely Ineffective Punishment For World Cup Players
New France coach Laurent Blanc will drop all 23 World Cup players from the team (if only for one game), as punishment for their mini-strike. It should be interesting, as France's U21 side probably could have beaten that World Cup squad. [AP]...

Deadspin Classic: Madness, Glory, And The Self-Correcting Aneurysm
Four years ago, in the World Cup final, France's Zinedine Zidane defended the honor of his whore sister and ended his career in an unimaginably bizarre fashion. Afterward, David Hirshey bid a sad adieu....

Bleusballed In Paris: Laughing Along At France's Implosion With The Happily Unhappy French
Whether in a Parisian bar or at the local office of the Association of the Friends of the Paris Commune, Deadspin foreign correspondent John Harpham found the French delighting ever so Frenchily in their national team's disgrace....

Let's Take A Moment To Enjoy France's Misery
South Africa is the first host nation that failed to make it out of the World Cup's group stage—but even they managed to humiliate the French and send them home amid one last bit of poor sportsmanship. Delicious....

Golf Is Now A Contact Sport
Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in this morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day....

World Cup Open Thread: France-Mexico
Does France know there's a World Cup going on? Does Mexico have the firepower? Winner has the inside track to joining Uruguay* in the knockout stages....