Real Sociedad’s Antoine Griezmann has today been suspended from representing the French national team at any level for more than a year.
The youngster has been announced, alongside a handful of his Under-21 teammates, as being banned by the French Football Federation’s Disciplinary Commission until Tuesday December 31, 2013. This applies to representing the Under-21 team and senior side.
The action is in relation to October’s incident in which Griezmann and some of his teammates were found to have been in a Paris nightclub when they should have been with the rest of the squad at a training base in the north of the country.
France’s Under-21s were midway through a two-legged qualifying encounter with Norway at the time, playing for a place in the 2013 European Championships in Israel. Norway eventually won through 5-4 on aggregate, with the players facing no immediate sanction from their Coach Erick Mombaerts.
However, Mombaerts was soon after sacked and the youngsters were all called before the FFF’s Disciplinary Commission late last month to explain themselves, with today the confirmation of their findings announced in a brief statement confirming the bans handed out.
Griezmann has been capped 10 times for the Under-21s and has three goals to his name in that time. The other players to receive the same punishment are Wissam Ben Yedder, Chris Mavinga and Mbaye Niang. Yann M’Vila has been handed a suspension until June 30, 2014, due to a past record of indiscipline.
