The return of Les Miserables

France’s ‘1987 Generation’, so-called after the year of their birth, had been tipped to lead Les Bleus to a repeat of the team’s success at Euro 2000.

Instead, the current squad have more in common with the ‘enfants terribles’ of France’s embarrassing 2010 World Cup campaign after it emerged that four players could face bans from international football for their behaviour at Euro 2012.

The French football federation has set up an internal disciplinary committee which will meet next Tuesday to rule on the international futures of Samir Nasri, Jeremy Menez, Hatem Ben Arfa and Yann M’Vila.

Nasri could be banned for up to two years and miss the next World Cup after three separate incidents of poor behaviour that has left the federation’s sponsors furious, and withholding a €600,000 payment because of the poor image projected by the players.

Nasri first invoked the memory of Knysna, South Africa, where the players went on strike in 2010, by celebrating his goal against England with a shush gesture directed at French journalists.

“I don’t read the papers but my mother reads them every day and when you see stuff in there talking about my transfer and having a go at my form, it all adds up and it gets too much,” Nasri explained.

The outburst, though minor, just presaged what was to come: like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the French dressing room exploded after a toothless 2-0 loss to Sweden left the team facing Spain and not Italy in the quarter-finals.

After the game, Alou Diarra criticised his team-mates for not showing enough motivation and spirit in the defeat. Nasri took offence and told him to be more polite.

Meanwhile, Hatem Ben Arfa was furious that he had been taken off after 60 minutes and started using his phone. Coach Laurent Blanc told him not to call his family from inside the dressing room, whereupon Ben Arfa criticised the coach for the substitution and said: “There were other players out there worse than me.”

That wound up Nasri as well, as he thought it was directed at him. Ben Arfa then challenged Blanc to send him home if he wasn’t happy with him. Florent Malouda, part of France’s 2010 squad, admitted the in-fighting “awoke some demons in me”.

The situation was to get even worse: as the team toiled to a 2-0 loss to Spain, M’Vila showed dissent to Blanc when he was substituted, Menez swore and made an offensive gesture at captain Hugo Lloris mid-match while Nasri launched a foul-mouthed tirade on a journalist in the mixed zone after the game. Since then, the French press has laid into the troublesome quartet, three of whom (M’Vila is the exception) were born in 1987.

The French FA’s general manager Marino Faccioli was furious that before the Spain game, Ben Arfa was talking to his agent in the stands for over half an hour; while Nasri upset assistant coach Alain Boghossian by demanding to know why he had been dropped. Menez also upset the hierarchy by mucking around during the warm-up: he was trying to stand on a rolling ball and salute.

As Liberation put it: “Les Bleus have made enormous efforts during this Euro, on and off the pitch, to remove the spectre of Knysna from the group. But on Saturday, in Donetsk, Menez and Nasri tried everything to remind them of it.”

This was meant to be the tournament that turned Nasri into the star of Les Bleus. At Euro 2008, he made two substitute appearances (the second one, he was subbed off 15 minutes later to make way as Eric Abidal had been sent off) and since then, he has played at Arsenal, where he was a regular in the Champions League, and has won the Premier League with Manchester City.

“My profile has changed: I am mentally tougher, I manage situations better and I can handle the pressure better, playing in such a big competition,” he told France Football before the competition.

The 1987 Generation helped France win the Under-17 European Championship in 2004, but may not get the chance to help the senior team in 2014. “We are a strong group but we have yet to gain experience,” Nasri had said. “It is still too early to make us leaders. Having talent is good, but it’s not enough. You cannot buy experience.”

Nasri could now miss out entirely. French FA president Noel Le Graet backed the player after his goal celebration against England, but has now run out of patience with him. At a tense meeting with Nasri on Tuesday, he said: “You can do what you want in a Manchester City shirt but you can’t when you are representing France.”

The general feeling in France, whose promising campaign has once again been undermined by players behaving badly, was best summed up by Louis Nicollin, president of French champions Montpellier. “Nasri shouldn’t have gone to the Euros,” he said. “Leave that imbecile at City and let him enjoy all the money.”