Bonuses owed to the France team for having made the quarter-finals of the recently-concluded European Championships have been frozen, the French football federation announced on Tuesday. Each member of the French team, which lost 2-0 in the quarters to eventual winners Spain, was eligible for a bonus of 100,000 euros.
But in light of the in-fighting and ill-discipline that dogged the country’s Euro campaign, federation president Noel Le Graet said: “The whole of the bonuses of the France team at Euro 2012 are frozen.
“It’s blocked money, which may be redistributed or maybe not.”
Le Graet, up for re-election in December, added that four players from the squad would appear at a disciplinary committee “as soon as possible after their holidays” to explain their behaviour at the tournament hosted by Poland and Ukraine. “Four players will go before the disciplinary committee: (Hatem) Ben Arfa, (Yann) Mvila, (Samir) Nasri and (Jeremy) Menez,” Le Graet said after a meeting of the executive committee, a body he said was unable to impose sanctions. “The players must be punished, sanctioned, but I don’t want to make victims out of them.
“Financial sanctions are detailed in our statutes, and (possible) suspensions for the upcoming cases will be examined most fairly.” Nasri verbally abused an AFP journalist after the loss to Spain and was seen as a disruptive influence throughout, while Ben Arfa had a dressing room row with Laurent Blanc, who stood down as coach after the tournament. Menez railed at a referee, and gestured at captain Hugo Lloris during the Spain game, telling him to shut up, while M’Vila did not shake hands with Blanc or his replacement when he was substituted by Olivier Giroud.
