Bayern Munich refused to let midfielder Franck Ribery travel to France for a hearing with the French Football Federation (FFF) over the World Cup campaign of Les Bleus. The 27-year-old has been summoned along with four more players to sit down with FFF's officials in Paris in order to explain what went wrong during France's controversial campaign in South Africa. However, Bayern are unwilling to allow Ribery to attend the hearing, which is scheduled for August 17th, due to their new season perpetrations. "It is not on that the French Federation randomly remove Franck Ribery from his responsibilities with FC Bayern," said Bayern's chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in a press release. "The preparations for the new Bundesliga season have priority over the World Cup debriefing of the French Federation. "According to FIFA statutes, clubs must only release their players for fixed dates as laid out by the international football calendar, and that is not the case here. "For this reason, FC Bayern Munich will not release Franck Ribery for this hearing." France embarrassingly waved goodbye to the World Cup after failing to score a single goal in the competition's group stage. Furthermore, the one-time world champions suffered from internal disputes. One of them saw Nicolas Anelka insult his then manager Raymond Domenech. The Chelsea man was immediately dismissed from the team as a result.
