France's Euro 'bad boys' punished
The French Football Federation has opened disciplinary proceedings against players Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa, Jeremy Menez and Yann Mvila for misbehaving at Euro 2012, the FFF said on Tuesday.
The federation added that Didier Deschamps, who has just left Olympique Marseille and is the favourite to replace Laurent Blanc as France coach, needed time to work out whether he wanted the job.
"Hatem Ben Arfa, Yann Mvila, Samir Nasri and Jeremy Menez are summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee," FFF president Noel Le Graet told a news conference.
Nasri insulted a reporter after the 2-0 quarterfinal defeat by eventual champions Spain while Menez did the same to captain Hugo Lloris.
Ben Arfa was involved in a dressing-room argument with Blanc and Mvila did not shake the coach's hand when he was replaced by Olivier Giroud against Spain.
Blanc declined to renew his contract following the team's defeat.
Le Graet said he had contacted Deschamps to see if the former World Cup and European championship-winning midfielder was interested in the France job.
"I read this morning that Deschamps had said 'no'. That's a mistake. He's a boy I would like to work with," Le Graet said.
"He said he was not in the right state of mind to think about it right now and asked for a delay."
Asked about when Deschamps needed to confirm his interest, Le Graet said: "By the end of the week would be good".
The new coach will be named "at the end of the week or the beginning of next week," the president added.
Le Graet also said the individual bonus money of 100 000 euros ($125 800) due to the entire squad for reaching the last eight in Poland and Ukraine had been "frozen".
