Anelka sent home for foul mouth

France will be without striker Nicalos Anelka for the remainder of the World Cup after he was sent home by the French Federation.

Anelka was sent home after he refused to apologize to Coach Raymond Domenech for some insulting comments made at half time during the team's two-nil defeat to Mexico.

France are facing the possibility of an early exit as they are third in Group A with a point and one game to go.

Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon will have an operation after the World Cup on the back problem which could rule him out of the rest of the tournament.

It means he could miss up to four months of the Italian domestic season.

Buffon, who was substituted in his team's opening group match against Paraguay, has a herniated disc and will not feature in the match against New Zealand.

FIFA says it will make a formal comment on Monday on the performance of referee Koman Couli-Baly in the United States' 2-2 draw with Slovenia. 

The Mali official, who was taking charge of his first World Cup match, ruled out a potential winner for the USA in the closing stages but refused to identify who he had penalised.

FIFA has announced that single yellow cards received at the World Cup will only be cleared after the quarter-final stage of the competition.

The move is a change from previous years, when players booked only once during the group games went into the knockout stage with a clean slate.

One of the reasons for the change is to help key players avoid missing the final if their team gets there, as Germany's Michael Ballack did in 2002 after being booked in the second round and semi-final.