How did you become head of security for the France team?
In 1992, I was a police officer in Paris and I belonged to a close protection group within the national police, the GPPN (Groupe de Protection de la Police Nationale). That year, the Bastia-Marseille match was held with the Furiani disaster. The next morning, the president of the French Football Federation, in charge of this competition, received death threats from Corsican people who considered that Jean Fournet-Fayard was responsible for this disaster. It was hot, so I was assigned to this mission and it was through this that I set foot in the FFF. I followed him everywhere, including Corsica for the trial, between 1992 and 1994. That’s how I got into football. Then at the end of my mission in 1994, Aimé Jacquet took over the French team, and he asked me to be the security officer, in charge of travel, whether on national territory or abroad. For campaigns like Euro 96 and, I didn’t know it yet, for 98, a little later.
Your participation in the World 98, who announces it to you?
Aimé Jacquet works like a family man. At the end of Euro 96 where we are eliminated, finally… where the team is eliminated (laughs), in the semi-finals, we return and he tells us: we will meet again very soon. Indeed, we find ourselves in September with a fairly small staff, around ten people. At Clairefontaine, he announces the adventure to us. He tells us that we are part of it. We are automatically qualified as the organizing country. Aimé had seen me work between 92 and 94, then between 94 and 96, until the Euro in England, where things hadn’t gone too badly, we hadn’t had any problems. Aimé really wanted to create a bubble, to be with the family and to walk together, away from the media.
What was your role with the Blues in 1998?
When you are at Clairefontaine or traveling to hotels, whether abroad or in France, the idea is really to preserve the players, so that they only take care of football. It’s up to me to find the police forces, the order and security services on site, in the hotels, to prevent people from coming as close as possible. So after, indeed, organize travel between the hotel and the training grounds. There were plenty of things to do, but at the time, the stars weren’t those of today and it was, I think, easier. Zidane was already a star, but I happened to go to Rambouillet, to a shopping center or a supermarket with him, if something was missing. I was able to get there without a hitch, without a problem. We were able to get around without any problem. He was a little busy, but today, that would no longer be possible.
Were you listening and at the service of players for any type of request, at any time?
Yes of course. I was almost the first to get up and the last to go to bed, since I was the guardian of the castle. And I was, somewhere, the link between the staff, without overshadowing them, and the players. Didier Deschamps, Laurent Blanc, these are guys of my generation, who were born between 1966 and 1972, for the youngest. I managed to have conversations with them, to bring up some information. It was already almost my intelligence job, and I know that Aimé made use of that. There was this staff on one side, the players on the other, and me who served as a bit of a link. There was a chambering side, because I love chambering. I was born to bedroom, so we got along well. And I’ll tell you that the police took full number of them (laughs). It laughs nonstop, it jokes. So we also have to accept that it comes back to us a little bit. Aimé Jacquet knew that I could have links with them. When they had a free afternoon, he would say to me: Jean-Pierre, you accompany them, you watch a little, be careful. Afterwards, these are not people who went all over the place. They had a lifestyle. The few times we were able to go out for a drink, they drank a beer and no more, because they knew that the next day, it would be felt right away.
Did you ever participate in activities with them?
Yes, I had to do the number from time to time, when a player was missing on tennis balls. But no one wanted to take me. You will understand why (laughs). But that does not prevent that good, I tried, I did my best. Afterwards, it was more jogging with the staff. Aimé Jacquet was a great runner and, every morning, before starting his day, it was jogging at 6:30 a.m. or 7am, before breakfast. I was going with them. And footballers are not great marathon runners. So on that, I managed to follow them (smile).
Were there any tensions at times? The day of the final, for example?
Ah yes, that could have been the big downside to my career. Let’s say that 95%, even 98% of the time, it always went well because we always anticipated. We managed, in terms of timing, for travel. But on that day, what we hadn’t anticipated was that there would be thousands of people between the exit of the Clairefontaine woods and the town center of Clairefontaine. A small winding road. People everywhere, the bus that can’t squeeze through. We take ten minutes, a quarter of an hour late. When you know you have to be at the stadium for an hour and a half…
There, we said to ourselves: we got off to a bad start. There were however cordons of mobile gendarmes, but we were not advancing. Aimé was not very happy and, forgive me the expression, freaked out on the bus saying : ” Jean-Pierre, Jean-Pierre, we’re going to miss the final, do you realize? The most important game of our lives! We’re going to fail ! I had never seen Aimé tense like that. And he was kinda right. I asked the driver to drive a little faster, even if he didn’t want to: ” you understand, I have my disc. Tuesday, you won’t be there when I go to be checked, I’m going to have a fine”. Anyway, we made up for lost time. But it was tense from the start. Afterwards, it is up to the players to do what is necessary, but we put them in good conditions. It was a little heatstroke.
Do you still have images, sentences, words from some, in the locker room, after this first crowning of France and this incredible final against Brazil?
It’s euphoria. Aimé closes the door and says to me: JB, nobody comes in, it’s for us and between us, we stay there and you block “. So I tried to block for a moment. But when you have all the luminaries arriving, whether they are from the French Football Federation or the other great players who want to return, it’s complicated. I held on for a while and then when it’s the head of state who wants to come in, we don’t block him in front of the door (laughs). Moreover, Jacques Chirac, at the end of each match, he went to the locker room. He stopped in front of the entrance, and not knowing my name, he said to me: Hello you “. And then, with his outspokenness: where is my shirt? “. His security officer pulled out a France team jersey and put it on. And there, he returned and went directly to see Laurent Blanc: “ Where is the president? “. He did it with extraordinary naturalness.
Then there is the parade on the Champs Elysées. How did it go, security level? A real challenge, right?
It hardly belonged to me anymore, since there were cordons of gendarmes and police all around the bus. The idea was to go up to Avenue Georges V, almost at the end of the Champs-Elysées. But it took too long. Human tide. We could see them from above the bus. The guys passed out, we gave them little slaps, and it went back to the crowd. It was getting really dangerous. So at some point, we made the decision to leave the Champs-Elysées, to stop.
You were in the middle of the players, we can see you in the photos, right?
Yes, I was part of the full staff and I think that’s why it matched until the end. We eat football, we drink football, we sleep football. And the staff at the time, it was not the staff of today, where I understood that there are almost 40 people. We were ten. It was a little family, a real little family. I did not confine myself to doing the police. When we had to carry the trunks, when we were abroad, when we had to put the trunks back on the bus and manage everything, we gave a helping hand. A steward, there was one. But of course you have to lend a hand. We help each other, we support each other. I served as I could, at my level.
The French Federation offered you a replica of the World Cup, right?
Yes. And you’re not going to believe me, but she’s in a closet. Madam, at the time, was not very football, so here it is (laughs). I take it out when there are World Cups, when we reach the last four. I also had some jerseys. That of Lilian Thuram’s semi-final, that of Zidane’s South Africa. I gave a few of them, the last one to one of my nephews who was in his twenties. I thought I was making him happy by leaving him the jersey and he said to me: ” But what is it ? Is that an 80s jersey? “.
Do you remember a strong moment lived with the players, who symbolize the family that you were?
We had cohesion gatherings, in Tignes for example, during Christmas 97, where women and children were invited. We spend ten days together and, for the record, Marcus Thuram had just been born. The doctor had granted an exemption so that he could go up to Tignes. When you see the beast it is today (laughs). It was an extraordinary adventure. And there we were. The thing is: we were there!
You’ve had a lot of good times, but also some bad ones: when the list goes from 28 players to 22, before World Cup 98, for example?
Aimé explains to them that they are not part of the group. During the night, Lionel Letizi knocks on my room. He tells me : “can you take me back?” I can’t wait for tomorrow, I’m leaving. Others came to be picked up by friends. Lionel Letizi, he was in Metz at the time. I took him home at night. We left at midnight. This is a very long journey, he had tears in his eyes. We tried to talk about everything and nothing. We arrived at his house at 3 a.m. He tells me : “JP, I don’t remember the alarm code“. The poor guy, he was devastated. He types in the code, the house ringing everywhere and the colleagues arriving. It’s a disaster. I sleep 2 hours there and I leave in the morning because the next day, with the media , it was the effervescence for the explanation of the list.
- Interview by Hervé Blanchard