PARIS (AFP) - France national coach Laurent Blanc said Thursday he would be speaking with his squad about the soccer race quotas storm which at one stage looked as if it might cost him his job.
The former France centre-half admitted last week he considered quitting at one stage as the row over the mooted introduction of quotas for dual nationality players
threatened to engulf him and his family.
Ultimately, an official enquiry cleared him of any wrongdoing and the former Bordeaux, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Manchester United defender said he would speak about the issue when the players meet up next Monday before putting the issue to bed.
"Even though I have already had several players on the phone I will talk about it from the first day when I see them round the table. It will take two to three minutes, and afterwards we will not talk about it any more," said Blanc.
Blanc admitted that at one stage he did think of resigning after the Mediapart website released a transcript of a meeting last November in which Blanc and French officials discussed introducing quotas on the number of dual-nationality players at youth training centres.
A number of players have come through French academies in recent years, and represented France at youth level, only to switch allegiances to the senior sides of different countries.
Blanc suggested at the time he favoured the quota idea but insisted he opposed discrimination and apologised as the affair escalated into a full-scale race row, the make-up of the national team being a sensitive issue in France.
He himself was a key member of the squad which lifted the 1998 World Cup in which a number of top stars, such as Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram, hailed from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds while others, such as Zinedine Zidane, were of North African origin.
A French Football Federation and Ministry of Sport investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Regarding the issue of double-nationality Blanc said at the outset that "it was necessary to judge whether or not there was a problem. But if there is a debate, as it's a sensitive subject, you have to be very, very careful in what words are used."
The former France centre-half admitted last week he considered quitting at one stage as the row over the mooted introduction of quotas for dual nationality players
threatened to engulf him and his family.
Ultimately, an official enquiry cleared him of any wrongdoing and the former Bordeaux, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Manchester United defender said he would speak about the issue when the players meet up next Monday before putting the issue to bed.
"Even though I have already had several players on the phone I will talk about it from the first day when I see them round the table. It will take two to three minutes, and afterwards we will not talk about it any more," said Blanc.
Blanc admitted that at one stage he did think of resigning after the Mediapart website released a transcript of a meeting last November in which Blanc and French officials discussed introducing quotas on the number of dual-nationality players at youth training centres.
A number of players have come through French academies in recent years, and represented France at youth level, only to switch allegiances to the senior sides of different countries.
Blanc suggested at the time he favoured the quota idea but insisted he opposed discrimination and apologised as the affair escalated into a full-scale race row, the make-up of the national team being a sensitive issue in France.
He himself was a key member of the squad which lifted the 1998 World Cup in which a number of top stars, such as Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram, hailed from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds while others, such as Zinedine Zidane, were of North African origin.
A French Football Federation and Ministry of Sport investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Regarding the issue of double-nationality Blanc said at the outset that "it was necessary to judge whether or not there was a problem. But if there is a debate, as it's a sensitive subject, you have to be very, very careful in what words are used."
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