Domenech faces UEFA hearing over controversial remarks
Enlarge imagePARIS (Reuters) - France coach Raymond Domenech confirmed on Thursday he faced a hearing by UEFA over controversial comments about refereeing he made in a newspaper interview last week.
In an interview with French daily Le Parisien, Domenech had accused Italy of bribing the referee of an Under-21 international between France and Italy during the qualification campaign for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
UEFA president Michel Platini said Domenech should provide evidence to back up his allegations or face sanctions.
"UEFA have asked for an inquiry," Domenech told a news conference on Thursday. "I’ll go there willingly."
Domenech declined to say when the hearing would take place.
"I will write to the committee investigating what there was in the interview with Le Parisien and I will answer all the questions raised by this article," he said.
Domenech had also, in the interview with Le Parisien, praised Italy defender Marco Materazzi for provoking Zinedine Zidane into headbutting him in last year’s World Cup final. Zidane was sent off and France lost on penalties.
France visit Italy for a Euro 2008 qualifier on September 8.
Domenech also told Le Parisien he had doubts about the refereeing of the upcoming qualifier between the two rivals.
"I’m not the one who has invented .....continued below
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
the stories about refereeing in Italy," Domenech said. "Some matches have been fixed."Italy’s match-fixing scandal, which led to Juventus being demoted last year and four clubs having points deducted, centred on teams trying to secure favourable referees for matches.
PARIS (Reuters) - France coach Raymond Domenech confirmed on Thursday he faced a hearing by UEFA over controversial comments about refereeing he made in a newspaper interview last week.
In an interview with French daily Le Parisien, Domenech had accused Italy of bribing the referee of an Under-21 international between France and Italy during the qualification campaign for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
UEFA president Michel Platini said Domenech should provide evidence to back up his allegations or face sanctions.
"UEFA have asked for an inquiry," Domenech told a news conference on Thursday. "I’ll go there willingly."
Domenech declined to say when the hearing would take place.
"I will write to the committee investigating what there was in the interview with Le Parisien and I will answer all the questions raised by this article," he said.
Domenech had also, in the interview with Le Parisien, praised Italy defender Marco Materazzi for provoking Zinedine Zidane into headbutting him in last year’s World Cup final. Zidane was sent off and France lost on penalties.
France visit Italy for a Euro 2008 qualifier on September 8.
Domenech also told Le Parisien he had doubts about the refereeing of the upcoming qualifier between the two rivals.
"I’m not the one who has invented the stories about refereeing in Italy," Domenech said. "Some matches have been fixed."
Italy’s match-fixing scandal, which led to Juventus being demoted last year and four clubs having points deducted, centred on teams trying to secure favourable referees for matches.
© 2008 Reuters Click for restrictions
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
U.S. Elections
Find out all about American's next President and how the states voted.
Weekly quiz
Have you been paying attention? Take our weekly, fun news quiz to test your knowledge of current affairs.
Weather forecasts
Get the 7-day forecast for your region.
WAGS
It's not just footballers who get shown the red card. Take a look at some of the WAGS back on the market.
Odd pics
Look back at the week in picture in our special gallery of the weird and wonderful.
Experian Credit Report
Check who's been checking on you with your FREE Experian credit report.Latest Headlines
- England avoid big three in World Cup '11
- England to wait for India security report
- FIFA to push for quotas despite opposition
- Armstrong to make Tour de France comeback
- Hamilton says 2009 F1 title looks wide open
- Patriots and Bucs to play at Wembley in 2009
- Portsmouth to start Cup defence against Bristol City
- ARU boss rules out Giteau sabbatical in France
- Chennai could stage first test against England
- England criticised for dropping India tour
Page Footer
Access keys
You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
- (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
- (1) Navigate to Home page.
- (2) Navigate to My email.
- (3) Navigate to My Account.
- (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
- (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
- (6) Navigate to Members channel.
- (7) Navigate to Services channel.
- (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
- (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
- ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
- (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
- (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
- (x) Text only version of this page.
