Hatem Ben Arfa appeals to LFP over PSG exclusion

PARIS: Outcast France international Hatem Ben Arfa has appealed to the French League's (LFP) legal committee after again being sent to train with Paris Saint-Germain's reserves, the LFP told AFP on Friday.

An earlier story in L'Equipe newspaper said the French giants had told Ben Arfa to return to training with the reserves from Friday onwards.

It's the second time this season the 30-year-old has been banished from the first team and comes only two weeks after being welcomed back into the fold.

PSG originally sent the attacking midfielder to train with the reserves after unsuccessfully trying to offload the former Newcastle United and Marseille player during the summer.

"Legally, I believe the club has violated the professional football Charter," Ben Arfa's lawyer Jean-Jacques Bertrand told AFP three weeks ago.

The Charter allows teams to relegate a professional player to a second training group as long as it is only "temporary (and) exclusively for sporting reasons relating to the management of the squad".

Ben Arfa was left out of PSG's Champions League squad this season while his hopes of forcing coach Unai Emery into a rethink took a hit by the mega-money signings of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in August.

With the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Manchester United, Ben Arfa was PSG's marquee signing just over a year ago following a stellar campaign with Nice that saw him rebuild his faltering career after several unsuccessful years in England.

But his PSG dream soon turned sour and he was left in limbo as Emery made clear before the season began that he didn't want the temperamental player.