(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-09-04 06:36

PARIS, Sept 3 - France coach Raymond Domenech will appear on Tuesday before UEFA's appeals committee over controversial comments about refereeing he made in a newspaper interview last month, the French Federation (FFF) said.

In an interview with French daily Le Parisien, Domenech accused Italy of bribing the referee of an under-21 international between France and Italy during the qualification campaign for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

He was banned for one match and fined 6,000 euros ($8,183) by UEFA and decided to appeal.

France visit Italy for a Euro 2008 qualifier on Saturday and Domenech told Le Parisien he had doubts about the refereeing of that game too.

"I'm not the one who invented the stories about refereeing in Italy," Domenech said. "Some matches have been fixed."

Italy's match-fixing scandal, which led to Juventus being demoted last year and four clubs having points deducted, involved teams trying to secure favourable referees for matches.