TLDR
France Pierron has been taken off air after tearing into Belgium and Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku for planning to leave the World Cup to attend the birth of his first child, a rant that his network quickly disowned.
On one side is a World Cup quarterfinal dream. On the other hand, there is a hospital room where Jeremy Doku plans to meet his first child. When the Belgian star said he would briefly leave the tournament if his partner, Shireen, went into labor, French sports presenter France Pierron turned that private decision into live-television combat.
During a debate on L’Equipe’s show “L’Equipe de Choc”, Pierron told viewers that Doku was wrong to fly home if Belgium reached the knockout rounds. She dismissed the delivery room as “a disgusting moment” and branded fathers “completely useless” during birth.
“The World Cup is an incredible joy,” she began. “There are hundreds of footballers who would kill to be in your shoes. It might never happen again in your life. You are living out a childhood dream, yet you are going to walk away from it all to attend the birth of your child, a disgusting moment, if you will pardon the expression, where the dad is completely useless.”
Pierron pushed further as her panel pushed back. “You are not going to cut an umbilical cord; you cannot miss a World Cup,” she argued, later adding that Doku would “waste 10 hours” and suffer “an emotional meltdown” for an event she said could wait because “your baby will always be there.”
The clip traveled quickly, and so did the outrage. L’Equipe moved fast to protect its brand. In a statement, the channel said Pierron had made remarks that “shocked many viewers” and insisted the team “disassociates itself from these remarks which are very far removed from the Group’s values and apologizes to the footballer concerned and more generally to its fans.”
By the next scheduled episode of “L’Equipe de Choc”, Pierron had quietly disappeared from the lineup. French journalist Clement Garin reported she had been stood down from the show, a highly visible step for a female host who had built a profile in a space still dominated by men.
Facing the backlash, Pierron tried to soften the damage on social media. She said her “intention has never been to minimize the place or role of fathers with their partner and their child,” and called her tirade a “personal opinion” shared in a “contentious exchange.” She acknowledged that her words may have “shocked, hurt, or wounded” viewers and said she was sorry.
France’s association of female sports journalists walked a careful line. The group said it “totally and unreservedly disapproved” of Pierron’s comments, yet it also “condemns the harassment she has been subjected to sincerely,” signaling concern for her safety even as her professional judgment came under fire.
On the football side, Doku found a high-profile ally. England and Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins was asked about the controversy during a press conference and did not hide his dismay. “I think for a start disgusting is not a way to label a birth,” he said. “It only happens once, your first child. Welcoming them into the world is a blessing, and you do not get that opportunity again.”
Watkins backed Doku’s right to step away. “I see where Doku is coming from. I think he has all the right to go back and be there,” he said, noting that as a “very privileged man” the winger could travel quickly, support Shireen, then rejoin Belgium’s squad.
As Belgium chases results on the pitch, the bigger story swirling around Doku now lives at the intersection of career, fatherhood, and public expectation. For France Pierron, a few minutes of studio bravado have turned into a career inflection point, with her future at L’Equipe suddenly uncertain.
Should a World Cup ever come before the delivery room, or is Doku right to put fatherhood first, even in the middle of football’s biggest stage?
