Day: 11 August 2016

Pundits are predicting another runaway season for Paris Saint Germain in France’s Ligue 1 for the fifth time in a row. Monaco, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and a few others will fight for the crumbs left by Les Parisiens, espnfc.com predicts.
The departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic is expected to have little overall impact on the firm favourites. And they might be more multi-dimensional with new manager Unai Emery. Make no mistake: PSG are ready for another year of dominance domestically. However, once again, their season will be defined by their European campaign.
Meanwhile, Radamel Falcao is back in Monaco and until his thigh injury at last week’s home match against Fenerbahçe – after which head coach Leonardo Jardim hailed him as “one of the best strikers in the world” – had been doing well. “Goals, assists, sharpness, hunger and motivation: the “Tiger” seems to be back … Falcao will be back to his best sooner or later,” espnfc.com says.
Paris St Germain begin a less glamorous chapter of their Qatari-owned era following the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but they could be more even more lethal as a collective unit in their bid for a fifth successive Ligue 1 title. Reuters points out that PSG won both the League and both French Cups in the last two seasons but disappointed in the Champions League, to go past the last eight.
AS Monaco plays En Avant de Guingamp Friday Aug 12 and Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday, August 28.
 

One of the heroes of the Bastille Day atrocity in Nice has been sent to jail on a different matter. The Nice Criminal Court detained Gwenaël Leriche for continued violence committed against his ex-girlfriend and her employer.
On July 25, the 27-year-old received the Medal of the City of Nice for a courageous act committed during the July 14 attack in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais, but on Sunday, August 7, he went to the workplace of his ex-girlfriend and threatened her and the manager of the premises with a switchblade, the court was told.
He asked for time to prepare his defence, but the court remanded him in custody until September 12. He was convicted in 2014 for abusing his girlfriend, with whom he has a child.
In his defence this week, Leriche said he had not slept for fifteen days after the attack on July 14 and has been placed on sick leave. He said he had consulted a psychiatrist and has continuing problems with alcohol.
As he was taken from the court by police, Gweanël Leriche shouted to the judges that he needed “a shrink, not prison” before copiously insulting his ex-girlfriend, remarks that the court immediately recorded. Source: Nice-Matin

A British driver has been arrested with 14 illegal migrants in the back of his truck close to Dunkirk overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. The Kurdish-born driver at first refused to stop at a police checkpoint and fled into bushes along the A16 before being apprehended.
The migrants were all Iraqi nationals, the local judiciary reported. The driver was already known to the police, having been previously being stopped in similar circumstances near Modane, Savoie. The French border police are in charge of the new investigation, which is likely to bring charges of aiding a foreigner illegally in France.
The driver has been held in custody and is likely to face a court hearing within the next few days.

As if motorists don’t have enough problems on their plate, the Gendarmerie in the Var has warned of a spate of false car registration numbers. Victims of the crime soon learn of the problem when summonses arrive from the court.
Motorists have 45 days to contest a summons issued in error, but must go through a complicated process. Firstly, they must contest the summons, then lodge a criminal complaint in a police station followed by an application for a new carte grise (registration document). Paperwork needed includes a receipt for the criminal complaint, the certificate of registration for the vehicle, ID, proof of residence and, in the case of a speeding offence, a photograph of the radar machine that recorded the offence.
At the end of the process, the victim should receive a new registration document and a new licence plate. The process is free of charge if all the paperwork is in order.
The crime itself is punishable by five years in jail and a fine of up to €3,750, suspension of driving licence and confiscation of the vehicle.
France was the first country to establish motor vehicle registration plates, nearly 123 years ago to the day, on August 14, 1893. Licence plates became mandatory across the country by a decree of September 30, 1901, which “applied to all vehicles capable of exceeding 30 kmh” – that’s 19 mph.