On the international front, France will be without their top scorer at the 2016 European Championships. The French Football Federation have officially ruled out Karim Benzema for the upcoming tournament on home soil.

Karim Benzema

The Real Madrid striker is involved in an ongoing legal case, and the FFF clearly fear that his inclusion would disrupt the harmony within the host nation's squad. Benzema is facing preliminary charges of conspiracy to blackmail, relating to an extortion scam over a sex tape involving France teammate Mathieu Valbuena. He was suspended indefinitely in December pending the case, but his lawyer strongly disagrees with the decision.

"I have been told that it's because of reasons of group cohesiveness – but nobody has ever said that Benzema has behaved badly in a group situation – this is not something that he has been reproached for so I have trouble understanding and I can't forbid myself from asking that had he not been facing preliminary charges would he not have been selected? I add that knowing the case file, it's a case in which there are very few thing against him. I don't exclude that the case will be thrown out and he will be cleared if there it goes to trial," said Eric Dupont-Moretti, Karim Benzema's lawyer.