Arsenal and France legend, Emmanuel Petit has shocked the football world by astonishingly claiming that the 1998 France World Cup triumph over Brazil was fixed.
Fifa has been embroiled in a corruption scandal over the past few months, with disgraced ex-President Sepp Blatter banned from football in connection to a payment made to Michel Platini.
The retired footballer, who also played for Chelsea and Barcelona and was an integral part of the France side that went on to win the World Cup, has proposed a potentially damning verdict of the 1998 tournament.
And Petit reckons the disruption to the South Americans’ talisman could have been part of a ploy to give France the edge.
He asked: “Weren’t we puppets? Haven’t we always only and solely been puppets, keeping the economy moving, and don’t worry about anything else?
“Today I ask myself that question, did we really win the World Cup in 1998? Myself, I believe we did. In any case us, the players, we did everything for that.
“Beyond that, if there was anything else or not, I don’t know — but I do ask myself the question. It’s been 17 years since we won the World Cup, and for the last few weeks I do ask myself that question.”
It will be interesting to see how things folds in the coming days as Fifa, being headed by newly voted Gianni Infantino, look to clean the world football governing body's image.
-The Sun
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