French coach Roger Lemerre defied FIFA and England's top clubs today by calling up eight players from the Premiership to play a friendly in Australia next month.
Arsenal and others clubs had signed a petition asking for the match to be called off to avoid a lengthy and tiring overseas trip for their players.
Lemerre picked Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Sylvain Wiltord and Robert Pires from Arsenal, Emmanuel Petit and Marcel Desailly from Chelsea and Manchester United's Fabien Barthez and Mickael Silvestre.
FIFA had recommended that France call up just one player from each club.
Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makelele from Real Madrid and David Trezeguet and Lilian Thuram from Juventus will also travel to Australia.
