Louis Saha - French footballer HARDtalk

end the quest for justice for the families of the victims.

Football is a global obsession. The star players of the sport, the

likes of Messi, Rooney and Ronaldo, reap vast rewards and worldwide

adulation. But there's a sense of something rotten in the people's

game. A sport worth billions of dollars has fallen prey to match

fixing, cheating and bouts of shameful behaviour. My guest is

Louis Saha, a French international striker, currently with Spurs in

the English Premier League. His is the view from inside the football

factory - has the joy been taken Louis Saha, welcome to HARDtalk.

You have just done something very unusual for a top professional

footballer. You have decided to speak openly and frankly about the

state of the game and the state of societies in which you have played

the game. Why have you done that? wanted to express it a bit

differently. I wanted to give... It is a way to describe a Premiership

player. De why take it from that that you think the game and the

life of the Professional Footballers' is somehow

misrepresented? Not all the time. People may forget that we are

normal human beings. Show how it is for people who don't know how it is

really. One thing that really strikes me is that the modern,

professional footballer, the elite, is surrounded by people. You have

control from the manager, an agent, press, minders, PR people. You have

broken out of that. You came here on the Tube, the Underground.

is part of it. You have to accept it. If you find a way to control it,

the main thing is to play football at the maximum is. When you get

that and the right people around you, you will perform. It is not

easy. Many people will say sometimes we are a bit cold and

arrogant. I want to explain how it is, maybe we're trying to protect

ourselves. Let me take you back. You were raised in the suburbs of

Paris, not a particularly easy place for a child, particularly a

black child. Your parents came to France from the Caribbean. Did you

see football as some sort of passport out, a means of escape?

Not, not at the start. I was really in a -- innocent. It is reported so

many times in the press, on television, youngsters do not see

it the way I used to. It is a bit harder for them to realise that it

is a game, for enjoyment. I know that your dad was an influence to

go to the soccer academy, and joined the French league. It is

very striking that when you left Metz you spent the vast majority of

your time in England. Obviously the English Premier League has more

money but I wonder, is it easier to be a black professional footballer

in England and France? I think in a way they raised more space to

express yourself freely, in a way, as a sportsman. -- there is more

space. Secondly, the way success is spread. As a black man I felt very

comfortable to raise my children in England. When I put my feet in that

land I thought it was brilliant and never regret it. I want to talk

about the race question because you have written powerfully about it.

There is no question that in France, race and football have a quite

complicated relationship. In 1998 the French team that won the World

Cup was famous for being multi- coloured. It was all of the colours

of France but since then there have been a number of the incidents that

have raised questions about racism in French football. D C it? Yes I

do. BT's something reported, something hiding in society. -- it

is something. What went wrong afterwards, do you think? After

1998? It was an excuse for society to say they have real problem was

solved but it was not. -- that every problem. It didn't change

anything economically and attitudes inside the authorities for the

French Football Federation. Last week we had the leak of a top

discussion in the French federation where they appeared to be at least

kicking around the idea of putting a quota on the number of non-white

young children who would be put into the elite football academy. I

would wonder how they play LIQ felt when you read that. It was

disturbing. I could not believe it. At the same time, if you try to

look back at 4-4, the French Football Federation and how it

succeeds, most of the time it is because of immigrant players. As a

French player, an international player, I just needed an

explanation and when I get it, cos when I got it I was really

surprised. If we look at the politics of your country, the far

right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, scored very well in the

recent election. You now live in England. I wonder when you look at

your family, your kids, whether you have the desire to live in a France

where the National Front can poll 18% of the vote. That is something

really unpleasant. You feel it is, something like 6-7 million people

thinking that way. Metres a mix of people who do not agree on certain

points. -- it is a mix. Do you think you will go back? Yes, why

not? It is a beautiful country. Sacrifices have to be made by parts

of the population. Let me ask you about race in England was that you

have seen in your professional game a series of controversies. We have

John Terry facing a criminal trial, a lead to use of racist language

towards an opponent. He denies that. We also have the Luis Suarez affair.

Do you believe there is serious racism in a Premier League football

today? I doubt it, I do not think so. This is a rising from two very

high profile players, that is why when you talk about Manchester

United, Chelsea and the captain, I do not think so. For me as a player,

who has been playing abroad, I see England as an example. Maybe in the

lead it has to be controlled. you felt racism in your own career

in England? It has been all right, I think everything is well

controlled. The fans sometimes use any weapon they can to get at

players. I am a imagining they have probably used to race to get at you.

For some reason I have been lucky, I don't know. Only on Twitter, it

has been reported that no, I think I have been lucky. Let me ask you

how you have coped with to the unreality. By the age of 20 you had

a Porsche and it did not stop, the money kept on coming. How do you

believe players cope with that - well or badly? It is difficult.

That is why I tried to explain it in the book. It is difficult. At 25,

30, there is big money for some people at that age. You can imagine

people winning the National Lottery and trying to cope with that. It is

difficult. We are young and have to deal with the fame and stuff like

this and it is not easy. You have talked a lot about what it does to

football's relationships with women and it is depressing. --

footballers and their relationships. Some of them prefer to use escorts

for sex. Yes, 20-year-olds, it is difficult. It is hard because the

exposure is immense. Do you think it has damaged your view of women?

You have talked about how women tried to, to use your words, tried

to and trap men. So many women seem to have lost self-respect, you said.

I do not think so. It is really obvious that we are being targeted.

I am not saying all women are like this. Definitely not. It is a

different world now. Some women might think that you are putting

blame on women and should be looking at the responsibility of

the men. Yes, the responsibility, the world of football has made that

happen. It is an issue of being, the world is dominated by money.

Money and sex to be honest. could be for Walters, doctors,

prisoners. -- football players. fame of football is different and

with respect I think the public care more about football players

than doctors. We saw the headline recently in the Daily Mirror which

described football players as overplayed, either pampered and

sons. Something has gone really wrong, hasn't it? The media pushing

things to the age. They are basing that on a host of stories based on

pretty disgraceful sexual activity of football players, some of which

June it is in the a fine line between the cliche of a

footballer's and by some are very high profile players. It does not

mean the majority of the players are like these. And you talk about

it in the dressing room with other top players? Are they as aware as

you of the traps of falling into this life star? Yes. But it is

difficult to manage it. As I said, we are normal people and we make

mistakes. Anyone with a good heart and good intentions can make

mistakes. What strikes me about you is you seem to have a strong

relationship with your wife. The have been with your wife for 13

years. He had three kids. She has also talked about what it is like

being married to a top football professional. She does not make it

sound easy. You say they used see how doubt can invade and suffocate

the partner of a top footballer. Is that an indication that you and she

have had to work through some problems because of the world you

have lived in? Exactly. I think it is normal. We are no different to

any couple. And we have our issues and problems. Where it becomes

extreme, it is because of the famed. Because I am famous, in her

imagination are will get more temptation so there is something we

have to fight a daily. As a couple. I do not think that I am any

different as any other man but the thing is that that it is I try to

be very honest in the book and tried to deal with any problems

like any other man. One final thought about sex and football - a

different set of issues - they have never been a top professional

footballer, certainly not in the UK, who has come out and declared he is

gay - a homosexual. The mass -- they must be some. Do you think it

is possible that a top professional footballer could come out and keep

his career? As I said in the book, when you think about it, it could

be hard. I really think it could be difficult and because the

relationship with their team-mates so much but because of the

opposition tried to find a way to disturb his concentration. It could

be really, really hard. I cannot imagine football being a place to

do that. It is a sick world, in a way? I started to write that showed

there and archaic thought, why is a football so slow in this issue. No-

one knew at the time - in the population there is one out of ten

so you can imagine that the same numbers apply in football. Why has

it never come out? I tried to raise that problem. Let's talk to a

subject which has been around the conversation but have not been

explicit - money. There are footballers earning $300,000 a week

and a little bit more. You have an and lot of money. Are you free to

tell me what your salary is a? cannot think it is relevant to

anyone. It is personal. As an example, I have enough money to buy

the things I dream of - I am lucky as a man to do that. No do you ever

stop to think that the amount of money I have been paid for people

like Ronaldo and Messi, is ridiculous. We want to be paid well

but we do not need to literally have $15 million per year or more?

I understand your point that you try to compare any job or any

situation, it is unfair to say that a footballer does not deserve it.

At it may create a new sense of cynicism from fans about

footballers. There you go, kissing the badge, declaring undying

loyalty to the team you have just joined at... It is a cliche. But it

is what footballers do. ICI at - I am a big football fan. You are

putting that example as a cliche. Everyone is the same. We are not

all winning that kind of money. It is not everyone. Those struggling

with a salary... Outside the Premier League but the average

salary is well over �20,000 a week in the Premier League. When players

seem to be driven by money, fans get cynical about these declaration

of loyalty to the club because it does not ultimately seem to mean

anything. The player will leave if the age and finds him a better deal.

It is true but in the same time we're in business. Sometimes you'll

see that if a player this not perform, he will be put out of the

side and not paid because he will be playing in another team so if

you're not playing well, you are out. I wonder whether you think

money could be ruining the game in the long run. It means, look at

Manchester City, the guys with the deepest pockets, the owners have

the most money can pretty much these days by success? Is it wrong?

Well, it will undermine the sport if fans believe the only team who

have a chance of winning hearts in teams with the richest owners.

may not be nice to here but that is the sport we are in. You can

express it how you want but if you want the best players you need the

money. Another thing about money, it does seem to be linked to

cheating amongst players. The desire to get a competitive

advantage by diving, faking it for a penalty or indeed, faking injury

to get an opponent sent off - you believe it is becoming worst --

worse? I do not think so. Have you done it? It happens in the emotions

of the game. Have you done it? could happen. It easily happens

because he had been pushed and you are at a disadvantage and you could

easily, in your mind, you have a situation and I do not think that

even an Irish player would have done that - if you think of a teary

Henri. What you do a talking about the goal he scored against our land.

In SAN are run out of the World Cup, a go of France into the World Cup

final. It outraged many football fans and your attitude is that is

the game? That is part of the game. The intensity of the game is so

quick, the referee cannot see everything. If you try to avoid

that situation, put technology in and you will not have any more

issues on the Sunday papers. As we talk about these things, the

difficult areas for professional footballers - I wonder if in your

career, when you look at it as a whole, having lost some of the joy

they used to have played football? Not the joy but the innocence. The

eye of the keyed. As I said before, I think the player is not fragile.

He's just tougher. You are in a place we have to protect yourself

so it could be money, I could be an agent, I could be a woman, I could

be anything so I put the book together to make people be aware of

that. It is a world which is difficult. We are in a discussion

right now... The innocence is gone but do you still love the game?

Very much. I do not why some people think they will love the game more

than a football player. I do not think the game will be love more

than by a football player. I was maybe seven and I loved the game