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| Walter Spanghero ... "This story is making me cry." Photo: LaDepeche |
CAFÉ PACIFIC couldn't resist this. Until the horsemeat scandal, Spanghero, a French meat-processing company at the heart of the storm, was better-known as a family of sporting heroes. Publisher David Robie is a great fan of Les Bleus
rugby player Walter Spanghero and arrived in Paris from Algeria to work at Agence France-Presse just after the career of this great player with massive ball-carrying hands was winding down in 1972. And although Walter himself and his family has nothing to do with the Great Euro Horsemeat scandal, two of his rugby brothers, Claude and Laurent, had founded the Spanghero company at the heart of the controversy in 1970 (the Spangheros sold their majority interest in 2009).
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Walter Spanghero playing for Les Bleus at Colombes
Stadium in 1972. Photo: Tata-Navarro |
By Tony Todd of France24
Spanghero, the French company accused of knowingly supplying horsemeat labelled as beef, was a name synonymous with French rugby glory and commercial success – until last week.
The meat processing firm was founded in 1970 by Claude Spanghero, who played in the French national rugby side 22 times, and his brother Laurent, a leading member of the Narbonne XV.
From a family of six rugby-playing sons (and two daughters), the most famous Spanghero brother is Walter, capped 51 times and in the squad that won France’s first Five Nations Grand Slam in 1968.
