David Ginola is suing his former France coach Gerard Houllier over comments he made in a new book about coaching.
Ex-France Newcastle and Tottenham midfielder Ginola and former Liverpool and Aston Villa boss Houllier have long been no friends of each other, ever since the France side they had their respective roles in failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.
At home to Bulgaria in their final group game, the French needed just a point to secure their place in the finals in the United States. However, with the score at 1-1 in the last seconds, an over-hit cross from Ginola allowed the Bulgarians to break. Up the other end, Emil Kostadinov put away the winner to send his team through and condemn Les Bleus to watching the game on the television.
Afterward Houllier had said: “The adventure is over all too soon. With only 30 seconds remaining we were there but we got stabbed in the back and at the worst possible time.
“The referee still had his whistle to his mouth when Ginola won that free-kick near the corner flag, but then he goes and sends in a huge 60-metre cross instead of hanging on to the ball. That allowed Bulgaria to go and hit us on the counter."
Ginola later scribbled in his 2002 biography: “Houllier blamed me for 'murdering' France's bid to qualify for the 1994 World Cup finals.
"My 'crime' was to over-hit a cross aimed for Eric Cantona during our last qualifying match against Bulgaria in Paris."
Now, new comments about the issue and one particular offensive term in the book Coaches' Secrets’, penned by journalists David Riolo and Christoph Paillet and published in France last month, have infuriated regular TV pundit Ginola, who has taken legal action, with the first court date set to be December 12 in Toulon.
"David is absolutely incensed," a spokesman for the ex-player, who also turned out for Aston Villa and Everton in England, told the BBC. "Houllier should stop talking like this. Stop singling David out.
"To use those words, and to have them in a book that is meant to sell and to sell heavily, this was a very heavy quote."
Florian Sanchez, the editor of the book, told the BBC: "For legal reasons I cannot comment on the case,” but then went on to say that in the section of it to which Houllier contributes, the ex-France supremo does make comments regarding Ginola’s performance against Bulgaria – as well as his alleged role in a split between players from Paris Saint-Germain (who Ginola was with at the time) and Marseille..
Sanchez also said: "Two years ago, Houllier criticised Ginola on French television. David showed him the yellow card then, and warned him not to continue.
"Now he is showing him the red."