France captain Patrice Evra was dropped to the bench for his side’s World Cup group clash against South Africa on this day in 2010.
Evra was benched following a row between the squad and coach Raymond Domenech, which saw Nicolas Anelka sent home in disgrace following a dispute with Domenech and the players boycotting training in protest.
The armband was handed to Alou Diarra for the South Africa game and they got off to a poor start when Yoann Gourcuff was sent off in the 26th minute.
Bongani Khumalo and Katlego Mphela took advantage to put the tournament hosts ahead and Florent Malouda could only score a consolation as they were beaten 2-1.
The result meant France were forced to pack their bags and head home early after finishing bottom of their group.
Speaking to French channel TF1 post-match, Manchester United defender Evra said: “It’s not the time now for the settling of scores, it’s the time now for apologising and for feeling all the suffering that the millions of French are feeling.
“This apology goes directly to them. I wanted to do it yesterday but I was forbidden by my coach. I’m not going to go into details, I’ll give a press conference during the week.
“I really respect the suffering the French are feeling at this failure. They need to know the truth, they need to know exactly what happened that this disaster came about.
“People will know how we came to this point. But I didn’t come here to say that now, I came to say sorry.
“I’ll repeat again that I wanted to say it yesterday but I was forbidden.”
Domenech was replaced by Laurent Blanc in the aftermath of the tournament and following an investigation by the French Football Federation, Evra was handed a five-match ban in August 2010 with four other players including Anelka, Franck Ribery and Jeremy Toulalan all handed various suspensions.
