World Cup: Bank pulls ads featuring France’s team
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More fallout from the French soccer team’s World Cup mutiny Sunday.
Credit Agricole SA, France’s largest bank by branches, ended its advertising campaign featuring members of the national team as the team’s World Cup fate hung in the balance heading into Tuesday’s group-play finale with South Africa in Bloemfontein.
‘Looking at the situation, Credit Agricole decided to suspend its current ad campaign,’ the bank said in a statement. A spokeswoman for the Paris-based bank said the situation was ‘disappointing.’ She declined to be named.
Players on the French team refused to train Sunday to protest a decision by Coach Raymond Domenech and the French soccer federation to expel striker Nicolas Anelka after the team’s 2-0 loss to Mexico. The turmoil within the group has caused uproar in France.
France, the World Cup champion in 1998 and a finalist in 2006, may be eliminated from the World Cup on Tuesday if it doesn’t win with a big score against South Africa.
-- Kevin Baxter, in Johannesburg, South Africa