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After the debacle
of South Africa and the various player bans, new France manager Laurent
Blanc has invited his old friend Zinedine Zidane and Fabien Barthez to
their Clairfontaine camp to inspire the new team.

“I think both he
and the players will really enjoy it. Everyone knows what he achieved
during his career but not everyone knows the man himself. He is an
interesting character and the players will be able to get up close to
him,” Blanc said.

The manager is hoping that his one-time team-mate will be able to participate in the team´s training session.

“The training
session is likely to be a mainly technical one. Technically, Zidane is
still a really great player. He showed that in Nantes recently. What he
does is exceptional. He has an incredible relationship with the ball
and that is something that he will never lose.”

Time to move on

Guillaume Hoarau,
the 26-year-old giant striker from PSG, will be out to win his second
cap and finally cement his place in the new French national team.

Hoarau has been
plagued by injuries but returned to the fold in the summer, earning his
first cap in France’s 2-0 friendly defeat in Norway.

Hoarau said he and France have to start anew.

“Now, I need to get a move on. There’s a coach here watching my performances very closely. It’s now or never,” he said.

The striker is likely to be paired with new Marseille striker Loic Remy; in a partnership which has showed promising signs.

“I know Loic. His
game completes mine. The coach knows us back to front and he plays us
in our best positions. So, necessarily, that helps matters. Everything
will depend on what we do on the field, on the spark that we inject
into the team’s game. We had a big training session on Tuesday and
already the understanding is emerging, even though most of the side
haven’t played together before.”

Catching up with Spain

After finally
climbing the pinnacle of world football, Vicente Del Bosque and his
all-conquering Spanish are set to defend the European title they won in
Vienna two years ago, starting with a visit to Liechtenstein’s
Rheinpark Stadion.

Spain’s aim is to
become the first team to retain the European Cup; West Germany were the
closest to achieving the feat in 1976 when, after European and world
triumphs, they lost out to Czechoslovakia in their quest to win a third
successive tournament. Carles Puyol is out of the tie with a dead leg
but La Furia Roja will be very confident of getting a good result
against the minnows.

Germany also start
their campaign without erstwhile captain, Michael Ballack. After
finishing second and third in the last European Cup and World Cup
respectively, Joachim Loew and his young squad will attempt to go get
their hands on a major trophy in Poland and Ukraine in 2012.

Guus Hiddink also
returns to international action with Turkey in Kazakhstan while Russia
will begin life under another Dutchman, Dick Advocaat, when they travel
to Andorra.

Italy also have a
new manager, Cesare Prandelli, and he will want an improvement on his
debut 2-1 defeat by Cote d’Ivoire as they face a tricky trip to Estonia.

Extra officials

Europe’s leading coaches are in favour of two extra linesmen behind the goals and prefer it to the use of goal-line technology.

The new refereeing
system which will be in use during the qualifiers will feature one
extra linesman behind each goal, was first tried in the Europa League
last season and has now been extended to Euro 2012 qualifiers.

UEFA supports the
experiment which is being carried out in other competitions worldwide
over the next two years before FIFA decides whether to implement it on
a permanent basis.

UEFA’s technical director Andy Roxburgh said leading European coaches are ‘very positive about this experiment’.

“They’re very much
aware of the problems of going down the technology route and, like
[Michel] Platini; they would like to keep it human if possible, so this
experiment with the additional referees allows us to do that.

“The additional refs sometimes do not always look very active but
they are very active because they are in constant touch with the
referee,” added Roxburgh.