Raymond Domenech

Paris: France coach Raymond Domenech will miss his team’s European Championship qualifying match against Italy because of comments he made to a newspaper about fixed matches in Italian soccer.

Domenech was suspended by the Uefa on Monday for one match and fined Euro6,000. The French coach has three days to decide whether to appeal the sanction, handed down “for bringing football into disrepute,” the Uefa said on its web site.

In an interview published August 9, in Le Parisien newspaper, Domenech was quoted as saying that there had been a “bought referee” for a match between France’s youth squad — which he once coached — and Italy during a qualifier for the Sydney Olympics.

“I’ve rarely been so ripped off,” Domenech was quoted as saying. “When you get fooled once, there’s always a doubt (afterward). There are arrangements in Italian soccer.”

Uefa president Michel Platini had warned that Domenech would be sanctioned unless he could provide proof of the alleged match-fixing.

France visits world champion Italy on September 8 in a rematch of the World Cup final. Marco Materazzi, the defender that was head-butted by Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup final, will also miss the match. The Italy defender severely bruised his right thigh in Italy's 3-1 loss to Hungary last week.