French boss Blanc denies plan for ‘race quotas’

FRANCE coach Laurent Blanc has strongly denied reports that the country’s football federation are seeking to introduce quotas limiting the presence of ethnic minority players in the national team.

French website Mediapart alleged that plans were made at a France Football Federation meeting last November — with Blanc present along with Erick Mombaerts, coach of the France Espoirs U21 team, and U17 coach Francois Blacquart — to limit the numbers of black players and those of north African origin entering national training centres and academies at the age of 12.

Blanc, though, insisted: “This project does not exist. All that, for me, is false. It is impossible to put quotas in place in football. If that was put in place, advocating one race above another, I would fall off my chair.”