It’s official: Karim Benzema must watch from afar, as his France teammates attempt to win the 2016 UEFA European Championship on home soil.
France’s Football Federation announced on its website Tuesday that Benzema’s national-team ban will remain in effect at least through Euro 2016, according to The Associated Press.
“(President) Noel Graet and (France coach) Didier Deschamps have decided that Benzema will not be able to play at Euro 2016,” The FFF said in a statement.
The decision leaves France without its top striker for a tournament many consider “Les Blues” among the favorites to win. Deschamps likely will tab Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Anthony Martial and perhaps Andre-Pierre Gignac to bear the goal-scoring burden in Benzema’s absence.
The FFF provisionally suspended Benzema in December after prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to blackmail France teammate Mathieu Valbuena as part of an extortion scam involving a sex tape in which Valbuena appeared. Benzema denies the charges, and the complicated case is winding its way through the French legal system.
A judge in November prohibited Benzema and Valbuena from having any contact with one another, preventing them from playing together for France. The legal order was lifted in mid-February.
The scandal (or “affaire Benzema” as the French call it) has gripped France, prompting leading politicians to opine on the Real Madrid striker’s fate. Among them is France Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who recently said Deschamps should not consider Benzema for selection at Euro 2016.
Benzema, who has scored 27 goals in 81 games for his country, used Twitter to lament France’s decision.
“Unfortunately for me and for those who have always supported me. I will not be selected for our Euro in France,” Benzema wrote on his Twitter page.
This act of France’s morality play has come to end, with Benzema paying the heaviest of prices.
Thumbnail photo via YouTube/Benzecomps
