KEY POINTS:
This has not been a week to walk in the shoes of French rugby coach Bernard Laporte. His critics, and there are many, have let rip on all fronts after the wretched loss to Argentina and he has now been engulfed by new crises.
This week, Laporte's website was flogging off French jerseys with his signature for €149, when they retail, without signature, for €76. Not his fault, claimed Laporte, who blamed his business manager for the gaffe.
Then it was revealed he had read a letter written by a 17-year-old member of the communist resistance, killed by the Nazis in World War II, to the French in the dressing room before the Argentine defeat. Communists, socialists and the dead teen's biographer are outraged.
"Grotesque, sad and unbearable," he said.
The team were filmed listening to the letter, with fullback Clement Poitrenaud complaining the footage made the team look like "cretins".
The letter is a favourite of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and here's the rub: he happens to be a great mate of Laporte.
Sarkozy used it to mark his investiture as president, cried when he first heard it and reckons it should be read to all French schoolchildren.
The letter starts "I'm going to die". Given the Argentina result, shrinks have had a field day.
Laporte has never enjoyed popular support. But, come what may over the next few weeks, Laporte has a job to go to.
Several weeks before the cup began, Laporte was confirmed as the next junior minister for sport. The 43-year-old father of twins has never hidden his ambition. Rugby is merely part of it, not the end game.
Cabinet ministers do not need to be elected in France and Laporte has some significant chums. None is bigger than Sarkozy. The pair share holidays, jog together and have right leaning political philosophies.
Laporte, who took charge of the French team in 1999, has also enjoyed the patronage of French rugby supremo Bernard Lapasset. But after the Argentine defeat, Laporte's team copped a resounding spray from Lapasset. By extension, the criticism extended to 'Barmy Bernie'.
"I'm very disappointed," Lapasset told national sports daily L'Equipe. "I'm hurt. I have a feeling of betrayal. Maybe the word is too strong - a feeling of desertion.
"Our team has disappointed 14 million who watched on TV. They failed to meet our expectations."
So no pressure then on the erratic Laporte, who must spark some life into the French side pronto, which will be difficult given he's spent the decade rubbing out creativity and brutality, the two main ingredients of French teams for generations.
However, the French government moved swiftly to allay any suggestion that a bad cup campaign might damage Laporte's political future.
He was appointed. He could not be unappointed, the Elysee presidential palace statement said.
"Nothing can stop him from joining the government," an aide said.
Laporte's business interests include a casino, camping sites and restaurants. His roots are in the south, near Marseille. His spoken French is regarded as appalling; fast and ragged. Many of his countrymen struggle to understand him.
Yet don't be surprised to see Laporte in charge of the sports ministry early next year. Present minister Roselyne Bachelot is regarded as a figure of ridicule, whose foot is seldom far from her mouth.
She was among a group of politicians who switched from the Chirac to the Sarkozy camps. Favours had to be returned. But the betting is that will have been signed off by Christmas. Then, step forward Bernie.
His rages are renowned. The most celebrated was after France had beaten Ireland during the Six Nations last year at Stade de France, despite a ragged second half display. The crowd had whistled and jeered first five-eighth Frederic Michalak and the French team. Bug-eye Bernie went ballistic. They were "f...... bourgeois," he raged afterwards.
He should have been dumped after the bad semifinal flop in the 2003 World Cup and now French rugby is paying for it.
Laporte's political ambitions will be achieved, at least in the short term. He has Sarkozy's support. Although he probably shouldn't count on it extending too far.
Sarkozy's reputation is that of a man who surrounds himself with sycophants but has little time for losers.
If France bomb over the next month, Laporte might find his political career shorter than he envisages.
