France confirms friendly against England at Wembley
Posted: Friday November 06, 1998 03:03 PM
PARIS, France (Reuters) -- World champion France confirmed on
Friday it would meet England in a friendly at Wembley on
February 10.
The French Football Federation (FFF) said it was on the
point of accepting England's invitation with a letter to the
English Football Association's headquarters in London later Friday or Monday.
The FFF also said France would meet Morocco in a friendly at
Marseille's Velodrome ground on January 20.
France were originally to have played in the Confederations'
Cup in Mexico in January but pulled out last month because they
would not be able to field a full strength side.
Italian, Spanish and English clubs said they would not
release their French internationals for the competition because
it clashed with important domestic matches.
The FFF said it had received a letter from FIFA president
Sepp Blatter expressing his regret that France had decided to
pull out of the January 8-20 Confederations' Cup but there would
be no sanctions against the French.
The Wembley friendly will help England and France prepare
for their next Euro 2000 qualifiers in March, while Morocco will
use the Velodrome match as a warm-up for their African Nations'
Cup qualifier against Guinea four days later.
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