French contract snub drove Santini to Spurs

France coach Jacques Santini revealed he chose to join Tottenham after the French Football Federation refused to extend his contract with Les Bleus.

The former Lyon chief will take over at Tottenham on July 1 after leading the French team at Euro 2004, and it appears the FFF’s failure to prolong his deal beyond the end of the forthcoming tournament pushed Santini into his decision.

In a statement on the FFF’s website, www.fff.fr, Santini said: “I would have probably considered with a lot of interest a new contract with Les Bleus, which is a group of sound, talented and ambitious players.

“But the circumstances did not allow that situation to happen, but I have no regrets and I don’t want to blame anyone.

“This is the way football is, this is the law of professionalism, that’s life.”

Santini agreed to join Spurs after a meeting with chairman Daniel Levy and new sporting director Frank Arnesen.

He continued: “A few hours ago I agreed with Tottenham to join the club for a full season next campaign.

“My contract with the French federation ends on June 30 and this prompted a few club from France and abroad to make a move on me, and I had set the match between France and Ukraine [next week] and our departure to Portugal as a deadline to make my decision.

“Tottenham’s offer, initiated by former Denmark international Arnesen, was precise and interesting enough to end with a meeting with Daniel Levy during the last weekend and then lead to a finalised agreement a few hours ago.”

Santini took over as France coach in July 2002 as a replacement for the sacked Roger Lemerre.

Since then he guided Les Bleus to a perfect record in their Euro 2004 qualifiers while reviving the confidence they had lost after their catastrophic 2002 World Cup campaign in Asia, when France were eliminated in the first round after failing to score a single goal.

Two months ago Santini admitted his bitterness at not receiving any contract extension offer from the FFF.

At the time he compared his fragile situation to that of Sven Goran Eriksson, whose contract with England was renewed earlier this year.

But Santini also insisted the news of him joining Tottenham does not distract him from his prime objective, that of winning the Euro 2004 with France.

“Of course this news does not change anything,” he added, “on the contrary I am still deeply determined to go very far with my French team in the Euro 2004 which has been in everybody’s minds for the past two years.”