Brittany national football team

Squad selection

Brittany plays unofficial internationals. Eligibility to play for the Breton team is strict, as the players (or their parents or grandparents) must have been born within the Breton territory. The BFA has a pool of around 100 players in the first three professional divisions to choose from, some of them with proven international football experience. Those who have played for the Breton side include the likes of Christian Gourcuff, Paul Le Guen, Yann Kermorgant. Brittany's Stéphane Guivarc'h won the 1998 World Cup with France.

History

Given their strong sense of cultural separatism from the rest of France, Brittany formed a Breton XI football team, that competed at various points throughout the 20th century, playing against the likes of Luxembourg and Norway. The Breton team made their debut at the Roazhon Park in Rennes in 1922, defeating Luxembourg 1-0.

The Breton Football Association (BFA) was formalized on 18 July 1997, and shortly after they brought together Breton professional footballers to form a representative football team of Brittany. Following the support from Fernand Sastre and Michel Platini (co-presidents of the French Organizing Committee for the 1998 World Cup), the Brittany team was set up with the aim to offer a warm-up game to the 1998 WC qualified national teams, and therefore, they played their first official game against Cameroon on 21 May 1998 (two weeks before the start of the tournament) at Roazhon Park in Rennes, and a Breton side featuring Paul Le Guen surprised, as they notably hold the Cameroonian to a 1-1 draw, thanks to an equalizing goal from Guingampais Rouxel just before the break. Six games had to be called off between 1999 and 2005 because of the then French FA administration, which contradicted its own rules. The head of the French FA administration changed and BFA finally recovered in order to fully resume its activities in 2008. Two years later, in 2010, Brittany participated in the 2010 Corsica Football Cup, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals by the hosts and eventual champions, Corsica, however, they managed to salvage same pride by defeating Togo in the third place match. Its latest game was played versus Mali (1–0) on 28 May 2013.

Celtic Cup Ambitions

BFA offered other Celtic nations to join in a Celtic Nations Championship between 1985 and 1987. On 9 September 1985, BFA Secretary Fañch Gaume, visiting Cardiff on the eve of a World Cup qualifier between Wales and Scotland, sounded both the FA of Wales and the Scottish FA about participation to a Celtic Nations Cup. Informal conversations were followed up by correspondence and further personal exchanges, whenever the opportunity presented itself before international games.

While Wales showed a genuine interest, the offer finally fell on barren ground with Scotland. Rejection letters from the SFA for non-entry stated the difficulties to find suitable dates but, as the sports editor of "The Glasgow Herald" Jim Reynolds presented it: "It is just two years since England and Scotland broke up the British International Championship by calling a halt to regular games featuring Northern Ireland and Wales. So, the chances of a Celtic Championship involving Scotland must be remote."

Brittany recently renewed its claims to organise and take part in the new Celtic Nations Cup with the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales by 2015 at the earliest or 2017.

Internationals

° game agreed but not played because of then French FA administration (1999–2005).

Managers

• 1988: Jean-Louis Lamour and Marc Rastoll
• 1998: Georges Eo and René Le Lamer
• 2000/2008: Serge Le Dizet
• 2010: Philippe Bergeroo
• 2011: Michel Audrain
• 2014: Jacques Santini
• 2016: Raymond Domenech and Michel Audrain

Capped Players

To be included in the Breton squad, according to FIFA national teams rules, it is eligible a player:

• born into one of five historical Breton departments.
• with parents from Brittany.
• with grandparents from Brittany
• grown up in Brittany since the age of seven.

Opponents: Cm (Cameroon), Cg (Republic of Congo), Cs (Corsica), Gq (Equatorial Guinea), Oi (Nantes 'Ouest Indoor' Tournament), Tg (Togo), Us (USA).

Last-minute defections through injury or illness:

• 1998: Sylvain Ripoll, Ronan Salaün
• 2000: Claude Michel
• 2008: Mathieu Bouyer, Romain Danzé, Yoann Gourcuff, Fabien Lemoine
• 2010: Hassan Ahamada, Étienne Didot, Jérémy Menez, Fabien Robert
• 2011: Florent Besnard, Mathieu Bouyer

Notable players

Breton footballers who represented FIFA national teams

Men's internationals

• Players in bold have won the FIFA World Cup

• Players in underlined have won a continental championships

• Julien Ponceau

• Gonzalo Higuain

• Dani Kouch

• Guy N'dy Assembé

• Georges-Kévin Nkoudou

• Chaker Alhadhur

• Pépé Bonet

• Santiago Eneme

• Loïc Amisse

• Tiémoué Bakayoko

• Bruno Baronchelli

• Jean Batmale

• Charles Berthelot

• Bernard Blanchet

• Louis Cardiet

• Eduardo Camavinga

• Antoine Cuissard

• Patrick Delamontagne

• Jean-Paul Bertrand-Demanes

• Ousmane Dembélé

• Marcel Desailly

• Désiré Doué

• Léo Dubois

• Daniel Eon

• Jean-Michel Ferri

• Pierre Flamion

• Louis Floch

• Kevin Gameiro

• Nicolas Gillet

• Philippe Gondet

• Yoann Gourcuff

• Jocelyn Gourvennec

• Matteo Guendouzi

• Jean-Marc Guillou

• Stéphane Guivarc'h

• Pierrick Hiard

• Raymond Keruzoré

• Randal Kolo Muani

• Mickaël Landreau

• Gilbert Le Chenadec

• Paul Le Guen

• Yvon Le Roux

• Robert Lemaître

• Marcel Loncle

• Corentin Martins

• Jérémy Ménez

• Yann M'Vila

• Nicolas Ouédec

• Armand Penverne

• Jean Prouff

• Ulrich Ramé

• Robert Rico

• Steve Savidan

• Yannick Stopyra

• Alex Thépot

• Philippe Tibeuf

• Jérémy Toulalan

• Adrien Truffert

• Jordan Veretout

• Jean Vincent

• Sylvain Wiltord

• Stéphane Ziani

• Alan Do Marcolino

• Claudio Beauvue

• Dimitri Foulquier

• Mouctar Diakhaby

• Larsen Touré

• Mikaël Cantave

• Loïc Négo

• Emerse Faé

• Giovanni Sio

• Jérôme Mombris

• Jérémy Morel

• Abdoulaye Doucouré

• Joris Marveaux

• Kévin Théophile-Catherine

• Lindsay Rose

• Amine Harit

• Imran Louza

• Délis Ahou

• Yann-Erik de Lanlay

• Abdoulaye Diallo

• Robin Le Normand

• Josué Homawoo

• Mohamed Larbi

Women's internationals

• Léa Abadou
• Camille Abily
• Salma Amani
• Ghislaine Baron
• Gaëlle Blouin
• Hillary Diaz
• Samia Fikri
• Anne Gouëzel
• Sonia Haziraj
• Hélène Hillion-Guillemin
• Françoise Jézéquel
• Sylvie Josset
• Corinne Kerouredan
• Clarisse Le Bihan
• Isabelle Le Boulch
• Isabelle Le Denmat
• Marine Le Diodic
• Margaux Le Mouël
• Eugénie Le Sommer
• Charlotte Lorgeré
• Clara Matéo
• Griedge Mbock Bathy
• Jade Nassi
• Françoise Paulhac
• Lydie Perraudeau
• Véronique Sourdin
• Corinne Suchodolski

Image gallery

File:Brittany team v Cameroon (21 May 1998).jpg|Brittany, captained by Paul Le Guen, in a match against Cameroon in 1998 File:Brittany vs Congo 2008.JPG|Brittany in a match against Congo at Stade Fred Aubert, Saint-Brieuc, in 2008

References

1. III.8.3, p. 59).
2. (6 Apr 2011). "Corsica Football Cup 2010".
3. (7 November 1986). "The Celtic Nations' Union". [[George Outram & Co]].
4. (22 October 2011). "Scotland could compete in new Celtic Nations Cup in Brittany". [[Herald & Times Group]].