17ers like that can rarely just admit they got their *** handed to them. They will take any avenue to avoid admitting that to themselves or anyone else.
Someone will throw it out unofficially in some editorial or on an officially unafficial French Swim Team message board, but they won't make an official accusation.
The cheese-eating surrender-monkeys don't like getting bitchslapped like that, no matter how used they are to it (Wellington at Waterloo, Hitler in WW II, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, whoever the leader was in Algeria).