FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

RFI covers Italy's elimination on the periphery of an article centered on Iraq — the last qualifier, joining France's group. Les Bleus will face Iraq in Philadelphia on June 22, after Senegal and before Norway. Iraq is 'on paper the most manageable opponent for France, ranked No. 1 by FIFA.' Italy's fate doesn't occupy a full sentence.

This relative silence speaks volumes. France, world No. 1, 2018 champions, 2022 finalists, watches Italy's shipwreck with the distance of a power that has its own problems (World Cup preparations, the Iran war disrupting travel). The story of Ali Al-Hamadi, an Iraqi striker playing for Luton Town in England's third division 'who grew up in Liverpool after fleeing the 2003 war as a baby in his parents' arms,' gets more space than the four-time world champion's elimination.

But RFI's choice to frame Iraq rather than Italy is also geopolitical. Iraqi coach Graham Arnold, an Australian, 'had tried to postpone the match due to disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict.' RFI ties sport to the ongoing war — the Iraqi players started their journey from Baghdad by road ten days ago. Football as a mirror of the world's crises, not as autonomous spectacle.