Besieged France on World Cup defensive

KNYSNA, South Africa — William Gallas refusing to speak to the media, training behind closed doors, security tighter than Fort Knox - France are a little rattled ahead of Friday's World Cup opener against Uruguay.Since their arrival at their heavily criticised five-star luxury hideout in Knysna on Saturday the 1998 world champions and 2006 beaten finalists have conducted all but the first 15 minutes of their training sessions in private.One irate journalist accused French team director Jean-Louis Valentin who braved a media onslaught here Wednesday that the situation was "becoming worse and worse".When Valentin began to defend the decision to open the first quarter of an hour to the media another journalist cut him off saying: "But what's the point of (letting us watch) the first 15 minutes?"The team official replied: "I take note of your discontent and I will pass it on."Valentin then turned to the Gallas affair - on Tuesday the Arsenal star made it clear that he would not be talking to the press during this World Cup."He is extremely focussed on his objective, the World Cup," explained Valentin."Don't count on me to stir things up."He then tackled the accusation that the French camp was adopting a siege mentality after shuttle buses ferrying the media to watch training sessions were subjected to numerous security checkpoints."With regards to the security I read that the French team were living in a siege mentality, that's absolutely not the case."He laid the blame for the tight security on South African authorities following FIFA guidelines.France manager Raymond Domenech meanwhile reacted to criticism of the team's luxury hotel by sports minister Rama Yade, who caused a stir at the weekend when she said the team should have shown some "decency" during hard economic times by not choosing a five-star resort to stay in while in South Africa.Domenech, who is stepping down after the World Cup, said: "The training pitch is in an idyllic situation, these are exceptional conditions to prepare."This brings home

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