France hopes to add the European Championship title to their World Cup crown this year, but first they must defend the trophy they won three years ago in Russia, as qualification for the 2022 event in Qatar begins on Wednesday. France are ranked second behind Argentina in the latest FIFA rankings, just one point behind them. The French team has been successful in recent world cups, having won the cup in 1998 and 2002. But they were disqualified after their captain, Patrick Vieira, refused to come off the field during the match against Italy due to political tensions between France and Italy. France went on to win that match 3-0. Italy was not allowed to advance to the next round of the tournament at the time, so the disqualification did not result in France being banned from future events. However, France was suspended by Fifa for one year starting in September 2002. The ban was reduced on appeal by the French sports court to four months starting in January 2003. France is scheduled to play its first game back from suspension on August 26th when it takes on Scotland at Stade de France. The winner will advance to the next stage of the qualifying process while the loser will drop down to the second place group where they will face Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland for a spot in the quarterfinals.