Gallas threatens legal action over World Cup bonus
France international defender William Gallas has threatened to take legal action against the French Football Federation (FFF) unless they pay him his World Cup bonuses, his lawyer told AFP on Friday.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: April 02, 2011 09:51 AM IST
France international defender William Gallas has threatened to take legal action against the French Football Federation (FFF) unless they pay him his World Cup bonuses, his lawyer told AFP on Friday.
The bonuses relate to image rights during qualification matches as well as the World Cup finals in South Africa which the majority of the France squad have already renounced, but which Tottenham player Gallas wants to donate to a charity of his choice.
"Once again we are reaching out to the Federation," his lawyer Jim Michel-Gabriel said. "Mr. Gallas plans to take the case before the courts. We haven't fixed a time limit but this case has dragged on too long."
The FFF announced in February that the debate over the France squad's forfeit of their World Cup bonuses was "definitively closed".
The FFF has said that the money, believed to total around three million euros, will be distributed in the amateur game.
But the two cases which remain unresolved concern Gallas and Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka, who has said he wants to donate his bonuses to an amateur football association of his choice.
France's players agreed to give up their bonuses after a disastrous World Cup last year that saw them eliminated at the group phase following a strike by the players.
The squad refused to train in protest at the FFF's decision to send home Anelka after he was involved in a clash with coach Raymond Domenech.
Anelka was subsequently handed an 18-match international ban for his role in the affair, with Patrice Evra and Franck Ribery banned for five and three games respectively. Jeremy Toulalan was also banned for one game.