Football Update: French Football team suspended after a turbulent performance at the FIFA World Cup 2010, South Africa
There has been severe backlash expected in the French football after the disastrous world cup, and it has finally started to take shape. French Football Federation has suspended all 23 players that were part of the World cup Squad. The team for now is barred from taking part in the next international Friendly match.
Laurent Blanc the new manager of French national team had requested the federation not allow any of the 23 players to be part of the team. France was set to play in a friendly match against Norway on 11th of August.
France is the former world and European champions lost in the world cup final in 2006 in Germany. The 2010 campaign was marred with number of controversies even before the world cup started. The coach Raymond Domenech was criticized by many for the team he selected, and also his method of selecting the team. It was widely believed the Domenech used Tarot cards to guide him towards naming the team. The 23 man squad that he named for the world cup did not include Samir Nasri, Karim Benzima and Patrick Viera. All 3 players were believed to be integral for France’s chances in the world cup, but Domenech decided to leave them out.
Nasri who plays for Arsenal has long been regarded as the best left footed player to come out of France after Ribbery. The 24 year old has been impressive during his time at Arsenal and was a big shock for one and all when he was not included in the team. Next man Karim Benzima is rated by many as one of the best strikers not Just in France but in world football. Benzima was snapped up by the Spanish giants Real Madrid from Lyon for a handsome sum of money, even though he did not have the best of seasons at Bernabeau but still was by no means was worthy of being left out of the squad. Patrick Viera was the only man still available for France who was part of the team that beat Brazil in 2002 to win the world cup (Henry was on the bench and did not play in the world cup final in 2002). Viera captained Arsenal for number of years and it was believed that he would have provided France with the experience and maturity that clearly was lacking in South Africa.
France entered the world cup certainly not as favourites but they were the runner ups in the last world cup. After a tame draw against Uruguay, France lost to Mexico and South Africa to end a disastrous campaign.
However, not being able to win a single match was not their only problem; there was the infamous incident of Nicolas Anelka having a spat with the manager at half time during the match against Mexico. He was later ordered to go home in middle of the tournament. That was followed by the whole squad boycotting practice and taking a stand against the federation, it was only expected that the final match was a nightmare loss to hosts South Africa.
France’s new manager Blanc said that there are various issues in the team, and it would take some time before things can start to look normal. He said there are big problems and some actions have to be taken to take the people responsible to task.
Blanc added that he followed the team closely in the world cup, and did notice number of things that a normal viewer may have missed. The new manager went on to say that regardless of all the chaos given proper time and backing, he would once again take French football to the great heights of where it used to be.
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