Here's the story Friday's Confederations Cup fixtures are in doubt after fears were raised that New Zealand and Japan might be unable to travel to their matches due to the national transport strikes planned for Thursday. CONFEDERATIONS CUP: All the news WATTS NEXT - New balls ! The Confederations Cup organising committee are currently working to find a way to transport the Japan and New Zealand teams to their matches. Both teams are playing at the Stade de France on Wednesday and then have to move to Lyon and Saint-Etienne (500 kilometres away from Paris) to play Friday's games. A committee member said: "There are three possibilities: the most plausible is to move them on Wednesday just after the match. We can also get them to travel by plane on Thursday, but that could lead to troubles as the strike is likely to affect the airlines too. The last option is to make them do a road trip, but it definitely appears as the worst solution." French unions CGT, FO Unsa and FSU are calling for strike action to demonstrate their dissatisfaction about the pension reforms of the French government. --Ugh! At least there are no looters.
This is too funny. But 500km is a little more than 300 miles, maybe they can take a bus or hitch a ride!
Announce a Jerry Lewis 10 city tour that starts this Wednesday and they would never go ahead with the strike.
Realistically I'm sure they can hire luxury buses to get the teams there. I just don't think national team players ego's are too suited for long bus rides, no matter how comfortable. Kevin
When the French strike they tend to blockade things, such as roads, so taking a bus is not the simple option it sounds. It's not something I admire, but when they strike they really do it well.
The blockades happened a couple of years ago when truckers blockaded the highways. They do block up city traffic a bit, but it doesn't last that long. These strikes have been taking place in the cities, and the large demonstrations have only been taking place on Tuesdays. It's not likely that you'll see any highway blockades for a government workers strike. I guess it could happen...
Amen. And the taking 70% of their citizens income in taxes...now that's the way to encourage economic growth...ataway to go France!!! To quote my father: "The only good things the French have contributed to the world are mayonnaise and oral sex."
Striking is to the French what 4th of July is to Americans. I'm all for people defending their right to earn a decent living, but do it good and once every x years. Not 12 times a year. If you have to go on strike as often as they do... you're really doing something wrong. Nuke France. No one will miss it.
What's the difference between a Frenchman and mustard? One is yellow and runny, and the other is a condiment.
It's always nice to know that if I'm looking for France-bashing, BigSoccer is right there for me. Hell, even if the thread is completely unrelated to France, someone might slip a "cheese eating surrender monkeys" comment in there. I mean, that's persistence, man.