FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template

South Africa’s French World Cup coach Philippe Troussier, accused of attacking a black reporter, faced possible sanctions on Tuesday.

The South African Football Association executive committee was meeting to discuss the incident.

Troussier told AFP he was unaware he was under investigation. He said he simply refused to be interviewed last Saturday by a reporter from the City Press which claimed his World Cup squad did not contain enough real South Africans and contained too many overseas-based players it described as palookas.

The reporter claims he was knocked aside by the coach whose authoritarian manner has not gone down well with the South African media.

The conservative Citizen paper said: “If Mr Troussier cannot control himself, he should not be in charge of our team.”  The Bafana-Bafana play Zambia in their last warm-up match on Wednesday before flying off to Argentina on their way to France where they take on the hosts in their opening World Cup match at Marseille on June 12.