May 13, 2002	Monday	Safar 29, 1423

PARIS, May 12: France’s newly-reelected president Jacques Chirac stormed out of a championship football match on Saturday after Corsican football fans attempted to shout down the singing of the French national anthem, The Marseillaise.

Storming out of the presidential tribune of the Stade de France located in the Seine-Saint-Denis department north of Paris, Mr Chirac rushed towards the TV cameras of TF1, the French TV channel and demanded that before the match be resumed that an apology be made to viewers by the French Football Federation, the organisers of the event.

Twenty minutes after Mr Chirac’s angry demand, FFF head Claude Simonnet heeded the French president’s request and publicly apologised on behalf of the French Football Federation. The match then went ahead as scheduled, with Lorient defeating Bastia by a 1-0 score.