dimanche 1 mai 2011

Quota row is scandalous hotchpotch, says French chief

PARIS, May 1 (Reuters) - Accusations of racial discrimination against French soccer officials including national coach Laurent Blanc are "scandalous hotchpotch", French soccer federation (FFF) chief Fernand Duchaussoy said on Sunday.Duchaussoy said the affair
, which led to the suspension of FFF technical director Francois Blaquart on Saturday, could be an attempt to destabilise the FFF and that he feared a plot against it.
"I am outraged by the confusion that is being spread today," Duchaussoy told TF1 television. "It's a surprising, unfair and scandalous hotchpotch.
"As we manage quite well with the France team, people are perhaps also trying to destabilise it."
Blaquart's suspension followed allegations by French investigative website Mediapart that he had proposed enforcing racial quotas to limit the number of players of black or Arab origin in youth academies.
Blaquart and Blanc have said a meeting in November discussed the issue of players with dual nationality and nothing more.
An investigation has been launched which should be completed within eight days with Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno saying the scandal is serious if proved true and just as serious if false as it has sullied people's reputations.
Asked about the future of Blanc at the helm of the national team, Duchaussoy said he would take measures "or not" after the investigation.
Even France's right-wing National Front party has been stunned by the allegations.
"I am surprised that the leaders of French football are forced to introduce quotas for whites. I find it shocking. Sporting qualities should be taken into account," Louis Aliot, vice-president of the National Front, told Reuters on Sunday.
He added that players born overseas, such as 1998 world champion Lilian Thuram, "are French like you and me".
Thuram himself told TF1: "It's a false problem. Top players will play for the France team, the others will play for other countries.
"When you ask the wrong questions, you get wrong answers."

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