French fail to find successor to Escalettes

The French Football Federation have been unable to agree on a replacement for departing president Jean-Pierre Escalettes who, despite officially resigning from his role today after accepting responsibility for the national team’s failings, will now remain in place for the next three weeks.

The failure to find a resolution stemmed from divisions between the amateur and professional game with the FFF’s federal council due to meet again on July 23 to formalise plans for an election to find Escalettes’ successor.

In the only firm decision to come out of today’s meeting, Laurent Blanc was confirmed as new team coach, replacing Raymond Domenech, who had already announced his intention to stand down before France’s woeful campaign in South Africa.