Since the France-Belgium poster is official, we obviously can’t escape it. The French media have decided to relaunch the “chestnut” of the famous Belgian “seum”, which dates back to 2018. One media in particular, although a reference, even devotes a series of articles to it…
“The roads of the seum”: this is what the series of articles in the newspaper is called The Team as a preamble to this round of 16 match between France and Belgium. Articles for which a special envoy travels around Belgium to see “if the frustration” of 2018 “is still as strong”.
The Team is a leading newspaper, a leading authority on the French-language paper press. Personally, since I was a child, I remember that during my many family trips to France, my father always bought The Team in the morning: in his mind, the French press had a brand image and The Team was its standard-bearer, its leader.
The Team in tabloid mode
The incomprehension is therefore perceptible on the Belgian side. That media considered to be of lesser quality should play tabloid and go and stir up the cold ashes of this “seum” story was predictable; that L’Équipe should make a dedicated series about it? Strange.
Of course, an article on the Franco-Belgian rivalry would be logical and journalistically justifiable. But here, the angle is deliberately provocative. The title of the first episode of this series? “You stole the World Cup from us”. For the second, the reporter from The Team goes to Bilzen, Thibaut Courtois’ village, obviously.
Even on the French side, there are few journalists present on site in Stuttgart to defend this case. But is that so surprising? In 2021, after the admittedly pitiful elimination in the Nations League, the same newspaper had already headlined: “The seum, twice”.
The question was also asked to us by a few French journalists looking for speakers for their papers: what remains of 2018 in 2024? And it is impossible to deny that the lost semi-final continues to stick in the throats of a whole section of the public. Is it because it was France facing us, or because a victory in this match would probably have changed the history of Belgian football forever? To ask the question is also to answer it.
The attitude of The team is that of an arsonist firefighter, who throws oil on the fire and then tells people: “Look, it’s burning!” An attitude that we hope will not rekindle for good the unbearable debates of 2018…
