It’s football on the front page of several French papers. Tonight, France will play Serbia in Belgrade. “Not even afraid,” is the headline in the sports paper l”Equipe. The French side has not been performing well of late and the paper says at this stage, les Bleus have nothing to lose. It's almost certain they will have to go through playoffs to qualify for next year’s World Cup in South Africa. “Either they can give a demonstration of pride or fail once again,” the paper notes.

Inside, there is analysis of yesterday’s joint press conference given by Raymond Domenech and Thierry Henry. Before playing Romania last Saturday, there was a stand-off between Domenech and Henry which was leaked to the press. The captain of the French side said in his 12-year career playing for les Bleus, he had never seen such disorganisation and confusion. He claimed to speak on behalf of the team. However, yesterday all of that was swept to one side and both claimed to be in “perfect harmony”.

Libération says the result of this evening’s match will be more decisive for Raymond Domenech than it will be for France qualifying for the World Cup! Many senior figures in French football want him to stand down.

“The investigation that will rock Martine Aubry”, reads this headline in the weekly magazine Le Point. It publishes extracts of a book on shenanigans within the Socialist Party. The book, called “Hold Ups, Fraud and Betrayal” claims Martine Aubry stole the party vote that saw her installed as leader.

On November 21, Aubry was in a showdown with her rival, the fomer presidential candidate Ségolène Royal. Party members were voting in an extremely tight race. The book claims that, around midday, a telephone call was placed to a voting centre in Martine Aubry’s consistuency in the north. The caller was Martine Aubry’s political advisor at Lille City Hall, Guillaume Blanc. He told the director of the voting centre, “The gloves are off, stuff the ballot boxes.”

Guillaume Blanc then sent a text message to each of the voting stations in Aubry’s constituency saying not to release their results to the central authority but to instead send them straight to Lille City Hall. The book claims the results were then held back in order to adjust them at the last minute, thus ensuring a victory over Ségolène Royal.

These revelations will create problems in the party, just two weeks after a successful party conference which saw long-standing internal divisions set to one side.

A prison break is reported in Aujourd’hui en France: “The incredible escape of the presumed murderer of Géraldine Giraud." In 2004, the daughter of French actor Roland Giraud was murdered and the man who was due to stand trial next year for the crime has broken out of a prison in Auxerre. Jean-Pierre Treiber was taking part in a workshop in the prison, making cardboard boxes. It seems Treiber got into one of the cardboard boxes and was transported out of the prison and escaped! He had told prison staff that he had a meeting with his parole officer and he wasn’t missed until later that evening. He is still at large.