Monday 8 September 2014

Ban Ribery for international retirement


UEFA president Michel Platini has called on FIFA to ban Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich matches for retiring from international football.

The Bayern winger quit the France team after missing World Cup through injury.

But Platini said the player does not have right to refuse a call-up from coach Didier Deschamps and should be suspended from club football for three games.

"I have zero understanding of this," Platini told Bild. "It is not the decision of the players whether they come to the national team. This is the decision of the coach.

He continued: "Franck cannot decide himself whether he plays for France. If (coach) Didier Deschamps picks him, he must come.

"That's the FIFA rule. If he doesn't come, he will be suspended for three Bayern Munich games.

"I don't understand him anyway. He is French, the European Championship in 2016 will take place in France."

Despite his hard line attitude to his compatriot, Platini said the same did not apply to Germany's World Cup winning captain Philipp Lahm, whose exit from the national side was apparently agreed with coach Joachim Loew.

"If there is disagreement between Lahm and Loew, the Germany coach will no longer call on him, that's one thing. But basically it is not Lahm's decision, it's Loew's.

"(With Ribery) it's a very different situation."

Although FIFA rules do oblige players to accept call-ups, countries overwhelmingly respect players' decisions to retire from international football.

However France midfielder Claude Makelele was forced to reverse his international retirement by coach Raymond Domenech ahead of the 2006 World Cup - a situation Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho controversially likened to "slavery".

-- source: Eurosport 

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