This rebelliousness makes France, like its football team, particularly hard to govern.

ECONOMIST: What the travails of Les Bleus say about modern France

Opinion pollsters say that France's re-elected president, Jacques Chirac , and his alliance of the mainstream right, gained ground after the president stalked out of a football stadium when the Marseillaise, France's national anthem, was booed by supporters of a Corsican team.

ECONOMIST: Politics this week | The

Endless television and radio talk shows pick over France's deteriorating image abroad, touching not only the Romanies but also the strike by the national football team at the World Cup this summer and the Bettencourt affair, a political-favours scandal involving Eric Woerth, the labour minister.

ECONOMIST: France's poor image

If thuggery and violence continues to follow the English team around France their next game is in Toulouse on June 22nd the English Football Association should pull the side out of the tournament.

ECONOMIST: England��s shame