The countdown to the 2026 World Cup is on! Each day ahead of the tournament’s return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world’s biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year’s global event.
The 2010 World Cup was a major low point for a French national team rich with history. Les Bleus were coming off a second-place finish in 2006, but failed to advance past the group stage after a very poor showing.
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On top of that, France made headlines for the team’s tense locker room, which culminated in players staging a boycott after one of their teammates, veteran forward Nicolas Anelka, was expelled from camp.
Part of the issue was that the results were falling far below France’s expectations. The French opened the tournament with a 0-0 draw with Uruguay, before losing 2-0 to Mexico.
During that loss to Mexico, Anelka put all of his frustration onto manager Raymond Domenech, verbally abusing Domenech at halftime and sparking a feud between player and coach. Domenech responded by sending Anelka back to France in between the second and third games of the group stage as punishment.
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That didn’t go over well with Anelka’s teammates: The team boycotted one of their practices ahead of their third game in protest. France’s players wrote a note for Domenech explaining their refusal to train, which the manager read to the press in lieu of a training session.
The bad vibes continued into that third match, where France — who was already mathematically eliminated from advancing to the knockout stage — lost 2-1 to South Africa after going down by two goals early on.
Once the dust settled, Anelka was banned for 18 matches by the Fédération Française de Football (FFF). Anelka, then 31, had already planned to retire from national team duty after the World Cup, but the ban brought his international career to an abrupt end.
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All 23 players on the World Cup roster were suspended for the first friendly after the tournament, while three other players were given additional punishment for their role in the player boycott, including a five-match ban for captain Patrice Evra. Meanwhile, Domenech was promptly dismissed and replaced by Laurent Blanc.
Interpersonal drama is often a part of soccer, but few teams reach the point Les Bleus did in 2010. Luckily, France would go on to regroup over the next decade, winning the 2018 World Cup and finishing second in 2022.
