France Fails to Appeal Yellow Card, Michael Olise Threatened
JAKARTA - France failed to appeal the yellow card for midfielder Michael Olise. He is threatened with missing the semi-final if he gets a second yellow card if France beats Morocco in the 2026 World Cup quarter-final on Friday, July 10, 2026.
Coach Didier Deschamps said France's appeal for the yellow card was rejected by FIFA. "The yellow card has not changed. We have received information from FIFA. The card remains valid [in the match against Morocco]," Deschamps said ahead of the match at the Boston Stadium as quoted by france24.
France were handed a yellow card to Olise for an unnecessary foul as France beat Paraguay 1-0 in the quarter-finals.
How not, the Bayern Munich midfielder was noisy with Paraguay player Matias Galarza when the match was only seconds away in the match in Philadelphia.
Ironically, the two teams only made light physical contact. However, Olise's reaction was excessive. He pointed his finger to Galarza's mouth. Galarza took advantage of the action by falling and stating that Olise had hit him in the face. The referee did not hesitate to give Olise a yellow card.
The penalty was very detrimental to France and made Deschamps angry. The reason is that the match was almost over and Olise should not have shown an excessive reaction to the incident.
Now, he is threatened with missing the semifinal match against Spain or Belgium if he gets a second yellow card when facing Morocco. That is, with the record of Les Bleus defeating Achraf Hakimi et al in the quarterfinal.
The question is, not only Olise but also Bradley Barcola and Manu Kone are threatened with absence. They received yellow cards in the match against Paraguay which France won through a penalty from captain Kylian Mbappe.
As the 2026 World Cup enters the crucial phase of determining the steps to the semifinals and finals, Deschamps hopes the match will be led by a fair referee. The leadership of referee Francois Letexier, who is also from France, was in the spotlight when Argentina eliminated Egypt 3-2 in the last 16.
The referee was judged to have made many decisions in Argentina's favor that allowed them to turn things around after falling 2-0 behind.
The Egyptian camp said FIFA wanted Argentina to stay in the World Cup for marketing purposes. Even Egypt then filed a formal objection to FIFA over Letexier's performance.
"There are always decisions [the referee] that spark debate. And it depends on which side you are on. But our opponent this time is Morocco. I will not make the referee an opponent," said Deschamps, who will end his duties as France coach after the World Cup.
If he loses to Morocco, this will be Deschamps' last match after 14 years of managing France, successfully winning the 2018 World Cup. When he was a player, he also led France to win the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Cup.
"I don't think about that. In my head, with the assistants, our goal is to do everything to make everything go as expected. I'm focused on the match against Morocco and want to get the result we hope for," he said.