My Football Blog

France coach Raymond Domenech has stated that some of his players could possibly refuse to play in their final match of the group stages of the World Cup following the sending home of Nicolas Anelka.

The Chelsea striker was sent home from the competition after verbally abusing coach Domenech during half-time of France’s 2-0 defeat to Mexico last week.

Domenech was asked whether there was a chance of his squad not playing in their final match, to which he responded “it is a possibility’.

Anelka refused to apologise for his outburst towards his coach, after which a statement was issued by the French Football Federation, back by Domenech.

“Nobody can behave in such a way in the dressing room or elsewhere and high-level sportsmen and women have to lead by example through football,” he added.

“The three or four leaders are players past their prime who will never play a World Cup again.” said FFF general secretary Henri Monteil.

“We had to do something – the French people had a right to know,” added Domenech.

“What I should have said at the end of the message was that I did not support this action.

“With the FFF president and staff members we tried to convince them it was stupid. I disagreed with the document. What they were doing was unthinkable.

“We’ve wasted a lot of energy. There are no words to explain what has happened. I’m hoping we will now have action on the pitch rather than off it.”

“It was almost hallucinatory. This is a psychodrama that will go down in the history of the World Cup. The French team has been reduced to ashes.” stated French newspaper Le Figaro.

Should France play their final match Victor Chandler, BetFred and bet365 give them 11/8 odds of beating hosts South Africa.

Formed at the same time as the Scottish football, England is actually joint oldest football team in the world. In 1870 the Football association arranged a match between the two teams and this was played on the 5th March of that same year. A return match was played on the 30th November 1872. Over the next 40 years, England played a number of games exclusively with the Home Nations – Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

England joined FIFA in 1906 for the first time and played its first ever games against some one other the Ireland, Wales or Scotland whilst on a tour of Europe in 1908. As a team England did not play in the World Cup matches until 1950. Which they did play they failed to get past the first round when they were beaten by the USA, 1-0.

However this is not remembered much because it was their win at the 1966 World Cup that sticks in the mind of England fans.

There have been a number of England managers and in fact in 1990 there were a total of 4 in a short time. The first non English Manager of the team was Sven Goran Eriksson who managed the team for 5 years from 2001.

Whilst being managed by Sven, England saw a number of successes. These include – qualifying in 2 world cups and the Euro 2004, losing only five competitive matches, rising to a record FIFA No.4 world ranking for the English national team during the 2006 World Cup.