Shut your mouth’

HAMELN: France defender Willy Sagnol is furious that members of the country’s 1998 World Cup-winning team have taken to criticising the current squad. Laurent Blanc and Didier Deschamps are among players to have expressed dissatisfaction with France’s performance in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw against Switzerland. “Shut your mouth, because these words hurt,” Sagnol said. Sagnol made his debut in 2000 and played with World Cup winners such as Youri Djorkaeff, Christophe Dugarry, Franck Leboeuf and Bixente Lizarazu. Deschamps said the team was “too negative,” while Djorkaeff called the team “too slow.” “Frustrating,” and “lacking style,” were other comments bandied about.

Gusev in doubt

POTSDAM: Ukraine midfielder Oleg Gusev injured his left knee in Wednesday’s 4-0 defeat by Spain and could miss the team’s second Group H match against Saudi Arabia on Monday, a team spokesman said on Friday. The 23-year-old, who plays on the right and is one of Ukraine’s brightest prospects, was unable to train at the team’s base in Potsdam on Friday and could be replaced in the starting lineup by Oleg Shelayev. Coach Oleg Blokhin will be without experienced central defender Vladislav Vashchyuk, who is suspended after his sending-off against Spain.

Too many yellow cards

BERLIN: Franz Beckenbauer, head of Germany 2006, said on Friday that World Cup referees are handing out too many yellow cards and accused an African official of stupidity. Beckenbauer told ZDF television that Benin’s Coffi Codjia’s yellow cards in the match between Ecuador and Costa Rica “were stupid.” Codjia handed out five bookings — about average for the competition so far. Beckenbauer said bookings for time wasting were stupid. Referees handed out 102 yellow cards and five red cards in the first 21 matches of the competition, an average of 4.9 yellow cards per match.