Paris: France striker Karim Benzema “will not be excluded” from the selection for the national team if a guilty verdict is sent to him in the ongoing sex tape test, according to the President of the French Football Federation Noel Le Graet.
In an interview published by French Daily Newspaper Le Parisien, Le Graet said every decision about who was chosen for the national task would remain a decision coach Didier Deschamps.
Benzema was expelled from the French squad for five years until he remembered last May after he was accused of being involved in extortion of fellow players Mathieu Valbuena over sex.
The verdict in the trial will be announced on November 24.
“The coach will always be the person who chooses the side and benzema will not be excluded in the case of the guilty verdict,” Le Great said.
“It’s up to Didier (Deschamps) to decide on the basis of sports.” Benzema is expected to march when governing French world champions take Kazakhstan in Paris on Saturday in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.
The prosecution demanded a 10-month trial sentence for Benzema, whose lawyers had claimed prosecution failed to provide evidence to punish the star involvement of extortion.