Former Arsenal midfielder Alex Song says he was shocked to be sacked by FC Sion this month.

Song and eight other players, including another ex-Arsenal player Johan Djourou, were fired after either failing to respond to a WhatsApp message to the squad from club president Christian Constantin or refusing his offer of pay-cuts.

Song told RMC Sport: "My lawyer will take care of it, let's go to FIFA. We will defend our rights.

"We played a friendly on Friday (March 20) and we were supposed to meet with the president on Monday, then on Tuesday. We had no news.

"We received a WhatsApp message on Tuesday afternoon to tell us that everyone had to sign a paper telling us that our wages were being lowered, that we were going to be paid around €12,000.

"We were to return the paper the next day at noon. We received this document without explanation."