Three months before the European Championship began, with France installed as pre-tournament favourites, a row broke out between two of the French Football Federation’s key strategists.
The sporting director, Hubert Fournier, went public with his concern that Les Bleus, the senior national team, had an insufficiently rigorous planning process for penalty shoot-outs.
The long-serving head coach, Didier Deschamps, reacted angrily, cross that Fournier was intruding on his job, on territory Deschamps has guarded jealously for 12 years, a period that includes one triumphant World Cup, and silver medals in both the Euros and the last World Cup when France lost on penalties.
Deschamps argued there is only so much you can do to rehearse penalties, because the pressures on a player in a shoot-out, in a full stadium are never replicable on a practice ground.