The France squad have released a statement condemning the decision to send Nicolas Anelka home and refused to train on Sunday.

The French Football Federation punished Anelka for an outburst against coach Raymond Domenech at half-time in Thursday's 2-0 defeat to Mexico. Just a few minutes after taking the field ahead of training on Sunday, fitness coach Robert Duverne reportedly stormed away from an argument with captain Patrice Evra.

The players left the training ground and boarded the team bus, in which they had a meeting with Domenech, who read out a statement from the players, which read: "All players without exception want to declare their opposition to FFF decision to exclude Nicolas Anelka."