Flood victims gain as France lose

France's 1998 FIFA World Cup-winning squad lost 4-1 to Olympique de Marseille tonight in a charity game for the victims of the floods which ravaged south-east France in September.

'Dramatic circumstances'
The match, which was the brainchild of Manchester United FC defender Laurent Blanc, who is from that corner of the country, brought the 1998 squad and coach Aimé Jacquet back together for the first time. Blanc, whose initiative raised €1.5m on the night, said: "I feel pride, and also a lot of joy - even though the circumstances behind this match were fairly dramatic.

'Give something back'
"You have to be able to give as well receive," the central defender added. "This team has given people a lot of pleasure, but it's true to say that people at stadiums and across France have also given us an enormous amount of joy. So this is our chance to give something back."

'For people who have suffered'
Zinedine Zidane, who was replaced by Arsenal FC's Patrick Vieira after 24 minutes, said: "What we mustn't forget tonight is that even though we're all glad to meet up again, it's for people who have suffered - we mustn't lose sight of that. We're just pleased to be able to play a match for a good cause."

Nîmes venue
The match, broadcast live on French television, drew a capacity 18,000 crowd to the Stades des Costières in Nîmes. Only Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Bixente Lizarazu were missing from the French side. France opened the scoring through Christophe Dugarry but Marseille replied with goals from Ibrahima Bakayoko (2), Salomon Olembe and Djamel Belmadi

Flood devastation
The floods that ravaged the region left 24 people dead and ten still missing, thousands homeless and both crops and livestock decimated.