The president of France’s soccer federation announced today that Karim Benzema has been suspended indefinitely from the national team because of the charges brought against him stemming from the Mathieu Valbuena sex tape scandal.
Here’s the Guardian on what the president had to say:
The French football federation president, Noël Le Graët, said that Benzema would remain suspended until the case was resolved, calling it a “heart-breaking” decision.
“I have decided, it is a decision from the president of the French federation and not from the executive committee or the ethics committee,” Le Graët told a press conference. “As long as the judicial system has not decided that everything that has been published is excessive, the federation will not change its mind.”
Le Graet was not specific but his ruling appears to mean Benzema cannot be called up by the national team until he is convicted or cleared of the alleged offence.
This addresses Valbuena’s concerns, voiced in an in-depth interview with Le Monde, that the French team might side with Benzema over him and not call him up for next summer’s Euro tournament. Who knows how long the case will drag on, but at least this move implies that Benzema’s international career will be the one that suffers, not Valbuena’s.
[Guardian]
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