After a defeat to Italy on penalties in the World Cup Final, Makélélé initially commented that he was again going to retire from international football. However, he was called up to the squad by French national team manager Raymond Domenech for qualification matches for Euro 2008 against Georgia and Italy. On being asked about Makélélé being called up to his national squad despite being retired during an interview on Sky Sports, Chelsea manager José Mourinho accused France national coach Domenech of treating Makélélé like a slave and refusing to honour his retirement. Mourinho said Domenech "has been very objective – very objective – and said you have to play Georgia and you have to play Italy. Makélélé wants to retire but the national coach won't allow him to retire." FIFA confirmed that any club that refuses to release a player for national team duty is barred from using the player for two matches, a rule which is intended to discourage clubs from pretending that the player is injured.&lt;ref name="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2006/aug/29/newsstory.sport3"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; On the same evening as the Mourinho interview, Makélélé told French TV station TPS Star, "Even if my club doesn't agree, I will humbly honor the call."