Can France overcome infighting and ‘scandal’ of Henry’s Euros absence?

Welcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s new (and free) women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:

France have one of the best squads at the women’s Euros, yet few expect them to win it. Why? For years they have been dogged by controversies, infighting and intrigue – and the issues refuse to go away.

The coach, Corinne Diacre, has been in charge since 2017 and insists that the aim is to reach the final but it seems almost impossible considering what is going on in the background.

A month ago Lyon’s Amandine Henry scored a wonderful goal in the Champions League final and was voted player of the game, but she is not going to the Euros, having fallen out with Diacre after a disastrous 2019 World Cup. Her Lyon teammate Eugénie Le Sommer is not going either and Paris Saint-Germain’s Kheira Hamraoui will miss out too.

Whereas the first two are indicative of the problems that exist between some Lyon players and Diacre, Hamraoui’s absence is because of a horrendous incident in 2021 when she was attacked by two masked men and repeatedly hit with an iron bar.

Hamraoui’s clubmate Aminata Diallo was taken into custody and questioned by police but released without charge a day later. An acquaintance of Diallo’s who was also questioned by police was similarly released without charge.

That may seem like a club issue but the fallout has spilled into the national team. In February two France players, Katidiatou Diani and Marie-Antoinette Katoto, celebrated a goal against the Netherlands by forming an A with their fingers and confirmed it was in support of Diallo. In April another France player, Sandy Baltimore, had a