Knysna - France's World Cup squad released a statement on Sunday protesting at the exclusion of star striker Nicolas Anelka for an obscenity-filled outburst at coach Raymond Domenech.

The players said they deplored the way the dressing room bust-up between Anelka and the coach at half-time of France's 2-0 defeat to Mexico on Thursday had been revealed by sports daily L'Equipe.

The players' statement was read out by Domenech at the team's base in Knysna, after the squad refused to start their scheduled training session.

The statement:

"All the players in the French squad without exception wish to affirm their opposition to the decision taken by the French Football Federation (FFF) to exclude Nicolas Anelka.

"We regret the incident at half-time of the France v Mexico match, but we regret even more the divulging of an event which was only the squad's business and was part and parcel of the life of a top-level team.

"At the squad's request, the player tried to engage in a dialogue. We regret that his move was wilfully ignored.

"The FFF did not at any point try to protect the squad. It took a decision based solely on facts reported by the press, without consulting the players.

"As a consequence, and to signal their opposition to the attitude adopted by the most senior officials, all of the players decided not to participate in the training session scheduled for today."

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