Raymond Domenech ended his troubled reign as France coach in controversial fashion by refusing to shake South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira's hand at the end of their World Cup clash. The 58-year-old, who saw his side's catastrophic campaign end with a 2-1 defeat by the hosts, refused to expand on why he had not accepted the traditional shake of the hand from the World Cup winning coach. After the final whistle, Parreira approached Domenech and extended his hand to him. The France coach turned his back on Parreira, wagging a finger at him. The two then exchanged words. Parreira said an assistant coach for France told him that Domenech had refused to shake his hand because Parreira once offended the French team by saying they shouldn't have qualified for the World Cup. Domenech was in no mood to enlighten anyone about what he had said to Parreira. “I have no intention of replying to this question,” he said. “Is there another question?,” he asked after the question was posed to him again by another journalist. A third tried his luck: “Why are you refusing to answer this question?” to which Domenech responded: “Is there another question?” “If these are all the questions you are going to ask me, I am going to leave you, we are not from the same world,” he added later, in response to a question about the crisis in the French team. Parreira, who guided Brazil to the 1994 title, tried to explain the snub. “I believe it was because I had criticised his team after they qualified (when they controversially beat Ireland in the play-offs), but I really don't remember.” Evra: Domenech denied me the chance to apologize France captain Patrice Evra is furious at coach Raymond Domenech for denying him the chance to apologize to French fans for the team's World Cup debacle, and for dropping him from the last match for “no valid reason.” Evra was stripped of the captaincy and left out of the starting lineup Tuesday. He was one of six players dropped by Domenech days after a protest by the squad shamed the nation. “Tonight it's time for the big apology toward the ... French people, because I share the pain of all these French people,” Evra said. “What hurts even more is that this apology should have been made yesterday, but my coach stopped me doing it as a captain” He promised that “France will know the truth.” “There is a cause for all this failure, several things will come out,” he said. “Then, if people don't want to forgive, at least they will know the truth.” Evra said the whole squad will “give up all the bonuses, we won't accept a single cent” from the World Cup out of shame. Evra said Domenech stopped him attending the pre-match news conference Monday, which the coach attended alone before describing his players as imbeciles for their protestations.
