Pre-history The France B team was officially created in 1922, however, at the
1908 Summer Olympics, two teams from
France participated in the tournament, the main team and a "B" side, but the matches that this team played in
London are not recognised by
French Football Federation (FFF) as official B team games. France B was eliminated in the first round by
Denmark with a score of 9–0, but the main team did no better as Denmark then defeated France A in the semi-finals by a score of 17–1, conceding 10 goals from
one player alone, which was a world record at the time. Remarkably, both French teams conceded pokers from
Vilhelm Wolfhagen.
Early history France B was officially created in 1922 and the team made its debut on 15 January 1922 at the
ground of SC Luxembourg in
Luxembourg City, where they lost to the
Luxembourg A team 3–2, courtesy of a hat-trick from
Robert Elter, but France B fought back and achieved some vengeance in their next game when they faced the Luxembourg A team again on 25 February 1923 at
Stade Bergeyre in
Paris, this time being them the ones to win 3–2.
Decline After 1968, the use by
French coaches of this selection became rarer: between 1971 and 1982, only eight matches took place and then the B side became inactive. It was
Michel Platini, the then French coach, who revived this team under the name of France A– on 16 November 1988, which remained unchanged (with the exception of the period between 1990 and 1992, when the team was again called the "France B team") until 2001.
Recent history The most recent match of France B was on 5 February 2008 against
Congo DR in
Marbella, the day before the regular A-team friendly in
Málaga. The team line-up was
Steve Mandanda (
Hugo Lloris 46');
Gaël Clichy,
Jean-Alain Boumsong,
Philippe Mexès,
Bacary Sagna;
Jérôme Rothen,
Alou Diarra,
Samir Nasri (
Gaël Givet 76'),
Mathieu Flamini (
Jérémy Menez 17'),
Jimmy Briand;
Djibril Cissé; team members
Sébastien Squillaci and
Abou Diaby were not used. ==Results==