Anelka banned for 18 games for World Cup revolt

PARIS, (Reuters) – Striker Nicolas Anelka has been  banned for 18 games by the France team after the players’ World  Cup revolt, the French Football Federation (FFF) said yesterday.

World Cup captain Patrice Evra was banned for five matches  for leading a boycott of a training session in South Africa in  June in support of Anelka, who was banished from the squad for  insulting then coach Raymond Domenech.

The FFF banned Franck Ribery for three games and Jeremy  Toulalan for one. Eric Abidal escaped without sanction.

“We wanted Anelka’s sanction to set an example,”  disciplinary commission president Jean Mazzella said.

The five players, accused of playing a leading role in  France’s controversial behaviour in South Africa, had been  summoned by the FFF for a hearing at the ruling body’s  headquarters in Paris.

Ribery, whose Bayern Munich club had refused to release him,  and Anelka did not attend the hearing, unlike the other three. France sparked a big outcry at the World Cup by refusing to  train at their base in Knysna, Western Cape, after Anelka was  sent home in disgrace for foul-mouthed comments muttered at  halftime of a 2-0 defeat by Mexico in Polokwane.

“The players now realise that they should never have done  such a thing,” former France team director Jean-Louis Valentin,  who testified during the hearing, told reporters as he left the  FFF building. “We have to acknowledge that they deserve another chance…  Let’s close this chapter and start another one,” he added. None of the players talked to the media after the hearing,  during which Domenech and outgoing FFF president Jean-Pierre  Escalettes also spoke.

Two days after boycotting training, France suffered a shock  first-round exit from the World Cup with a 2-1 defeat by hosts South Africa. Laurent Blanc, who succeeded the controversial Domenech as  coach after the World Cup, refused to pick any of the 23 players  involved in the boycott for his first game in charge, a 2-1  defeat in Norway earlier this month.

France start their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with a home  game against Belarus on Sept. 3.