Nicolas Anelka said he was left “doubled up with laughter” by an 18-match ban handed down to him yesterday, saying he has moved on from France’s World Cup fiasco and branding those who run French football “clowns”.In his first public comments on the ban, which in effect brought to an Puma Shoes On Sale an international career that earned the 31-year-old 69 caps for les Bleus, the Chelsea Player said he had already made up his mind never to play for France again after he was sent home from South Africa in June.
“Who told them that I wanted to play in blue again?” Anelka asked. “I should not even have been mentioned by this kind of commission. For me, ever since the South Africa World Cup, the French team is part of the past.”The striker, whose reported abuse of the former coach Raymond Domenech during France’s match against Mexico led to his expulsion from the tournament and a subsequent players’ revolt on his behalf, did not show up to a hearing of the Puma Shoe disciplinary council yesterday, during which his and four other players’ punishments were discussed.
In an interview with the newspaper France Soir, he refused to accord the FFF’s investigation into the events surrounding the mutiny any significance. “For me, this whole thing with the Puma Sandals is an aberration, a masquerade to make sure they don’t lose face,” he said. “They have punished a void, as Nicolas Anelka never existed in this pitiful and colourful affair. I repeat: the page with les Bleus was turned on 19 June when I was evicted from Knysna.”



