Joyce wants to do the double

Joyce wants to do the double

Published Feb. 1, 2013 1:15 p.m. ET

France midfielder Yann M'Vila has had his international ban reduced on appeal, giving him hope of featuring at the 2014 World Cup finals.

The 22-year-old, who joined Russian club Rubin Kazan from Rennes in January, was last November suspended by the French Football Federation until June 30, 2014, following an unauthorised night out while on France Under-21 duty.

M'Vila, who has won 22 senior caps, was the highest profile of the five players punished, and received the lengthiest ban. His Les Bleus Under-21 team-mate Wissam Ben Yedder was suspended until December 31, 2013.

The pair appealed to the FFF, though, and have seen the bans reduced - in M'Vila's case making him available from March 1, 2014, and eligible for the World Cup finals in Brazil, which get under way on June 12.

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An FFF statement read: "Following calls from France Under-21 players Wissam Ben Yedder and Yann M'Vila, the High Commission of Appeal made the following decisions:

"Wissam Ben Yedder: confirmation of the suspension of all national teams selections from Monday, November 12, 2012 until Tuesday, December 31, 2013, with a grace period of October 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013.

"Yann M'Vila: confirmation of the suspension of all national teams selections from Monday, November 12, 2012 until Monday, June 30, 2014 with a grace period of March 1 to June 30, 2014."

The five players - M'Baye Niang, Antoine Griezmann and Chris Mavinga were also involved - landed themselves in hot water by breaking a curfew to visit a Paris nightclub just days before a European Championship play-off meeting against Norway in October.

Stanley claimed an impressive 2-0 win over Micky Adams' promotion chasers early in the season, but a repeat appears unlikely with Leam Richardson's side struggling three points above the relegation zone.

"We had a great start to the season," Reds skipper Joyce said. "We beat Port Vale 2-0 and are one of the few teams to keep a clean sheet against them.

"We can take confidence from that but they've had a really good season so far and we're in our position because that's where we deserve to be at this moment in time.

"So it's going to be a tough game but, for whatever reason, we seem to do quite well against the so-called better teams in our league and some of the results we've picked up against the top six or seven have been encouraging.

"We're going there on a big pitch, will try to get he ball down and play as we like to and hopefully we can get another positive result

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