Ginola Gets His Day In Court!

Last updated : 09 January 2012 By Footy Mad - Editor

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Ginola will aim to partially close a chapter on an episode that happened in 1993, but will undoubtedly haunt him for the remainder of his life.

It all seems a little OTT, but (as we all know) the French can get very emotional.

The scene was the Parc des Princes, France’s qualification for the 1994 World Cup.

Les Bleus were tied 1-1 against Bulgaria in a fixture they needed to avoid defeat in to progress to the finals in the USA.

Ginola gathered possession and was called to charge for the corner flag by Houllier, the coach of the national side. The winger did not heed the advice coming from the sidelines, choosing instead to deliver a cross. It was to prove a fateful decision.

Ginola’s delivery was too heavy, and set in motion a sequence of events that saw Emil Kostadinov score an injury-time goal that sent the visitors into the finals at the expense of the disbelieving French.

Ginola was remorselessly booed around France thereafter, aside from at Paris Saint-Germain, where he remained the darling of the support as he claimed the French Footballer of the Year prize at the conclusion of the campaign.

Most infamously, the press hit out at the former Newcastle winger, branding him “the assassin of French football”, a comment that typified the vilification of a player who felt he had to seek exile from his homeland in England.

Houllier was amongst those to hit out at the wideman, claiming that Ginola’s on-field actions were “criminal”.

David Ginola: “Until my death they are going to talk to me about this.

“If at the time Gerard Houllier hadn’t said these type of things, they wouldn’t talk to me about this now. It affects my personal life, my children, it affects a lot of things, it’s intolerable. Now it’s enough. I’m so sick of it.”

The ill-feeling was inflamed incredibly when the former France coach released a book entitled ‘Secrets des Coachs’.

It regarded comments made by the player in the build-up to the match.

Ginola hit out at his coach prior to the game, saying that "Eric Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin were not worthy of a place in the side ahead of me."

Come on David ... LET IT GO!