When France won the World Cup in 1998, poll numbers of top French political leaders surged and the country claimed vindication for its model of assimilating ethnic minorities from former African colonies.

How times have changed.

Instead of projecting an image to the world of racial harmony steeped in Republican values of liberty, equality, and fraternity, this year's squad has plunged into fratricidal conflicts playing out in the locker rooms, the press, and most crucially on the playing field.

Along the way, France is being pilloried worldwide - and politicians from the finance minister to the president himself are getting involved. Even a Parisian Left Bank philosopher has aired musings about a "hooligan culture" gripping the nation.

A French hamburger chain on Monday scuttled an ad campaign featuring a star player and fears are rife that the image of France abroad - a carefully groomed national treasure since the days when Charles de Gaulle was president - is undergoing serious damage.

It isn't just that the "Bleus" - as the national team has been affectionately known in better days - have turned in back-to-back dismal performances that have left them winless and on the verge of elimination.

What has riled the French perhaps even more has been the surreal spectacle of their sporting heroes refusing to train, their star striker being sent home after an obscene locker-room tirade, and the sense of drift and even indifference they have demonstrated on the field.

The crisis has spurred French President Nicolas Sarkozy into action.

Over the weekend, he ordered his sports minister to prolong her stay in South Africa to knock some sense into France's bickering squad.

"He like myself, we are taking note of the indignation of the French people and calling for dignity and responsibility," said Roselyne Bachelot.

During a press conference in Russia, Sarkozy described as "unacceptable" French star Nicolas Anelka's profanity-laced rant against coach Raymond Domenech that cost him a spot on the team.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, a former member of the French synchronised swimming team, reached far beyond her portfolio to issue a stinging criticism of the team.

"I am appalled because I have worn the French national colours as you know, and when you wear the French national colours you have added responsibilities," she told French television.

"There are young children, young adolescents who practice the sport and look to you as an example," she said.

The French often hold the belief that their country represents lofty ideals like universal human rights and democracy. De Gaulle made it a national policy to project French culture and influence around the globe - an ambition harboured since the reign of Napoleon.

So France's World Cup misadventures have hit especially hard.

The fortunes of the football team have also taken on a political dimension at a time when Sarkozy's poll numbers have been sagging and the national mood was already soured by austerity measures announced in a tough economic climate.

Sarkozy's rivals on the left and right have wasted no time in trying to win points from the World Cup fiasco.

A Socialist lawmaker went so far as to see a political parable in the sporting disaster: Conservative Sarkozy, suggested Jerome Cahuzac, has fostered the kind of selfish individualism shown by the super-rich players of the French team, to the detriment of the national interest.

"The political powers-that-be are going to have to avoid the impression that the crisis in football at the French team exposes a political crisis," said political analyst Stephane Rozes of corporate consulting firm Cap. "There's a risk that the two could be lumped together."

History has shown that a strong World Cup showing can help struggling leaders in the polls.

When France won in '98, conservative President Jacques Chirac and Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin both got a double-digit increase in poll ratings, largely by riding the national high.

France then trumpeted its multi-ethnic team with a term that translates as "Black, White, Arab" - a linguistic play on the tricolour of the French national flag.

But the multicultural euphoria vanished in 2005 in a three-week wave of riots in poor suburban housing projects where many immigrants from former French colonies in Africa and their French-born children live.

Some say the gulf between French elites and the underclass hasn't improved since then.

Philosopher Alain Finkielkraut said Anelka's infamous outburst was symptomatic of a "hooligan culture that has gripped the nation."

"Football should be exemplary, but instead it has become a symptom of everything that is wrong in France: the lack of respect pupils have towards their teachers, contempt for authority, civil disobedience," Finkielkraut said on French radio.

Sponsors were battling the threat of a bad-publicity firestorm.

Fast-food chain Quick said it was cancelling an ad campaign featuring Anelka and removed images of him from all advertising in the chain's French restaurants.

But Quick said posters showing the Chelsea striker holding up a burger as if it were a trophy will remain on Paris streets until Wednesday because there's no way to pull them down faster.

French bank Credit Agricole says it is suspending one of its TV spots featuring top French players. An Adidas spokeswoman said the sportswear company was "appalled and saddened" but said it would retain its sponsorship planned to expire this year. Retail giant Carrefour reaffirmed its support.

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