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French to appeal Blanc's suspension
Posted: Thursday July 09, 1998 09:07 AM
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France's Laurent Blanc (embracing teammate Lilian Thuram) hopes to play in the World Cup final despite getting a red card in Wednesday's semifinal (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- There's an outside chance that Laurent Blanc may play in
the World Cup final, despite an ejection for shoving a semifinal opponent
in the face.
Although they're not optimistic, French team officials planned to appeal
the automatic suspension the central defender will receive for his
expulsion from Wednesday night's 2-1 victory over Croatia.
"It was unjust, it was too harsh of the referee," French coach Aime
Jacquet said.
The Olympic Marseille star, who has played 73 times for France, was sent
off for the first time in his long career for pushing Croatian defender
Slaven Bilic in the face as the two prepared to chase a free kick.
An ejection carries a mandatory one-game suspension, knocking Blanc out
of Sunday's title game with Brazil, and FIFA
can lengthen that if it feels the foul was especially brutal.
"We will appeal but we fear it will be a formality," Jacquet said. "We
always have hope but I don't want to give Blanc any false hope."
Blanc, whose sudden-death overtime goal against Paraguay put
the French into the quarterfinals, said his ejection was unduly harsh.
"My expulsion punishes the player but the really bad scenario is that it
also punishes the team. I have this feeling of having tasted the cake, but
now I'm not allowed to touch the cherry," said Blanc.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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