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Banned

French starlets slapped with lengthy bans

Rennes’ Yann Mvila has been suspended from international football until the summer of 2014 as punishment for breaking a curfew.

A GROUP OF France U21 players picked up lengthy international bans as punishment for breaking a night-time curfew between two key European championship qualifiers last month.

The guilty five are Rennes duo Yann Mvila and Chris Mavinga, Wissam Ben Yedder of Toulouse, Real Sociedad’s Antoine Griezmann and Mbaye Niang of AC Milan.

Mvila picked up the longest suspension — until 30 June 2014 — with the other four banned until 31 December 2013.

The stringent punishments were handed down by the French Football Federation’s disciplinary committee.

The group’s nocturnal antics were first unveiled by L’Equipe, the French sports daily, which revealed that the players defied team orders and left the team base in the northern city of Le Havre to go to a Paris nightspot on the night of 13/14 October.

The team had beaten Norway 1-0 the previous evening in a Euro 2013 play-off but suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Scandinavians 5-3 on Tuesday. France coach Erick Mombaerts was sacked after the loss.

The FFF had previously warned Mvila about his future conduct after he refused to shake then-France coach Laurent Blanc’s hand when he was substituted during the national side’s quarter-final clash with Spain in Euro 2012.

For Mvila Thursday’s ruling effectively rules him out of taking part in the 2014 World Cup finals, should France qualify.

- © AFP, 2012

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