One word, Extraordinary.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...=global&cc=5739

Yep, that is all 23 of them including Ribery, Malouda and the captain Evra. Not that Henry and Anelka will be bothered much, they both quit internationals after the tournament.

Good idea.

Its one thing that I would have welcomed for the bunch of failures that dared to call themselves "England" at the world cup...

...but I never thought one FA would dare to go the whole hog and implement such a ruling.

It's a pity England did so well as to get passed the group stages.

They will miss a friendly against Estonia or someone else shit. Frankly, who cares?

Thats not much of a punishment for a team who refused to train in a World Cup.

It's Norway.

Who cares mate? Its a friendly, thats just a cop out and i can't believe anyone thinks otherwise.

Good point, may be a reason as to why i've not heard any of the 23 players so far going to the press and throwing a hissy fit.

The FFF were talking today that the sanctions could be extended to their first 2 EURO 2010 qualifiers at home to Belarus and away to Bosnia in September, if that were to happen then the original sanction would have probably made a bit more sense and then we'd be hearing players venting their anger.

As much as i dont want to condone the team refusing to train the French FA created the whole situation by keeping that fucking clown in charge for so long.

They also badly mismanaged the Anelka situation, though I don't have any sympathy with him. Domenech wasn't going to send him home but then the fitness coach leaked Anelka's changing room comments to the press, and the FFF basically insisted that Anelka be sent back to France. The main complaint the players had was with the fitness coach, who they called a "traitor" and insisted they wouldn't work with. They didn't have a particular problem with Domenech.

On the other hand it's a fairly fitting end to Domenech's reign as manager.

OK then, whats the most pointless punishment you can give to a player who has declared his retirement from internationals?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8893705.stm

It's particularly pointless because Anelka just said a few nasty words to the manager, was subsequently punished for it by being sent home and - even if he was intending to carry on playing for France - he was actually the only member of the squad who didn't go on strike.

Meanwhile, the players who took the extraordinary step of refusing to train during the world cup finals have got nothing more than a one-match holiday from the international friendly just before the season starts.

It's a bizarre and totally meaningless gesture.

EDIT: I didn't actually read the article - Evra gets a 5-match ban, Ribery 3 matches and Toulalan a further one-match ban.

Abidal, who actually refused to play against South Africa, got off with no further "punishment".

You're right though, what Evra done was far worse than Anelka, all Anelka did was give the manager a few home truths, Evra arranged for the whole team to go on strike and effectively ruin any of the tiny chance France had of qualifying and also had the run in with the Physio, but I guess they've thought they need Evra so have given him a lesser punishment than Anelka.