Platini speaks out over jeering of French national anthem

The controversy rumbles on here in France over what action - if any - should be taken when there's whistling or jeering during the singing of the French national anthem before an international football match.

And now the president of Uefa, and former French international, Michel Platini has weighed into the debate saying that the most recent incident on Tuesday evening had been blown entirely out of proportion.

In an interview with the national daily, Le Monde, Platini said that football was in danger of being taken hostage by politicians.

"The incident of the whistling during the singing of the anthem has become a political affair," he said.

"It has nothing to do with the sport."

Platini went on to say that it was something that had happened on numerous occasions in the past and shouldn't be interpreted as an insult against France but simply a "display against an opponent on the evening."

"When I was playing in the national team some 30 years ago, the anthem was jeered on a number of occasions both at home and abroad," he told the paper.

"At the time politicians weren't interested in football and it didn't shock anyone."

Platini's comments come four days after an international friendly between France and Tunisia at the national stadium in Paris, La Stade de France.

As Franco-Tunisian singer Lââm launched into the opening bars of la Marseillaise, large sections of visiting supporters started whistling.

There was an outcry in the national press the following day and condemnation from all sides of the political spectrum, with the prime minister, François Fillion, leading the charge and calling the incident "insulting".

A poll conducted later by CSA revealed that 80 per cent of the French agreed.

The day after the game, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy hauled in the president of the French Football Federation, Jean-Pierre Escalettes, and afterwards it was left to the sports minister, Roselyne Bachelot, to tell journalists what the government wanted to happen in the future.

"All matches would be stopped immediately if supporters whistled during the singing of the national anthem," she said.

"Any government ministers present would leave immediately and the stadium would be cleared," she went on.

"Future friendlies between France and the country involved would be suspended for a period to be determined by the French Football Federation".

While Bachelot was undoubtedly expressing the wishes of her boss, police unions among others were quick to point out just how impractical it would be for a stadium holding 50,000 plus supporters to be cleared quickly and quietly.

But that didn't stop Escalettes from insisting that such measures were feasible and that it would be entirely possible to clear a stadium peacefully if the will was shown.

"It would be difficult but not impossible," he said.

"If the police, the football federation and the minister of sport worked hand in hand it could happen," he added.

Everyone needs to get together to sort out how to go about it should this happen in the future.

Perhaps the last word - for the moment, as there are plenty of others being spoken and written - should be left with William Gaillard, Uefa's director of communications, who reminded anyone who was listening that it was not the politicians who were in charge of the match.

"Who's going to stop the game?" he asked. "For the moment it's the referee who decides whether to call a halt to the match, not the French government."