17 Aug 2010

French football players to face disciplinary hearing tonight

11:52 am on 17 August 2010

Five France players will face a French Football Federation disciplinary hearing tonight over the squad's strike at this summer's World Cup.

Patrice Evra, Nicolas Anelka, Eric Abidal, Franck Ribery and Jeremy Toulalan are the players in question.

France failed to win any games in South Africa, and the entire squad refused to train when Anelka was sent home after a bust-up with coach Raymond Domenech.

All 23 squad members were banned for France's following match as punishment.

Newly installed coach Laurent Blanc requested that no member of the World Cup squad be selected for a friendly against Norway in Oslo on last week, which France lost 2-1.

The FFF has also withheld World Cup advertising bonuses which were due to be paid to players.

Blanc, a World Cup winner with France as a player in 1998, will be hoping any further sanctions imposed on the summoned players will not impact on his team's Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, which begins against Belarus in Paris on September 3rd.

The disciplinary commission's move to target the five players follows their review of an inquiry into the case.