Unpopular with their own population and seemingly riven by divisions and internal conflict, the French national team are in danger of missing out on their first World Cup since 1994.
Les Bleus trail Ukraine 2 - 0 ahead of tonight's World Cup playoff second leg at the Stade de France.
The consequences are grave - and not just for the standing of the current crop of players.
With France hosting Euro 2016, a failure to qualify for next summer's showpiece will mean that they will not have competitive games for two and a half years.
France were arguably in a worse state in the early 90s despite the fact that they could call upon the likes of Eric Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin, they failed to qualify for the 1990 World Cup and flopped at Euro 92.
With the introduction of youngsters like Didier Deschamps and Laurent Blanc, they hoped to turn that around for the 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign.
But for France - and David Ginola in particular - it would prove a watershed moment.
Going into the final qualifying group game at home to Bulgaria, Gerard Houllier's team needed a draw at home to Bulgaria to make sure of their place in the USA tournament.
And heading towards injury time of that game, all was going to plan. Eric Cantona had given France a 31st minute lead which was cancelled out by Bulgaria's Emil Kostadinov five minutes later.
But with the clock ticking down, France were on course for the draw they needed.
Then fate - and poor judgement - intervened. Ex-Tottenham and Newcastle star David Ginola received the ball near the opposition corner flag with just second to go.
However instead of keeping the ball in the corner and running down the clock, the winger aimed an over-hit cross towards Cantona.
Bulgaria counter-attacked rapidly, scything through the French rearguard and found the net via Kostadinov...
There was no time for France to seek another goal and the referee's final whistle meant that Bulgaria would pip the French to a place at USA 94 by a single point.
The resulting outcry saw Ginola referred to as the "assassin of French football". The scapegoating reached the point that he felt he had to leave for England in 1995 and the 1993 French Player of the Year also played his last game for Les Bleus that year, despite his talents.
His case was not helped by Houllier who publicly blamed him for the failure to qualify - comments which have resulted in a 20 year feud between the two men.
Fortunately for the current crop of French players, there might not be a single scapegoat with the blame likely to be shared by Samir Nasri, Patrice Evra, Karim Benzema
