Les Bleus - non, Les Blancs!

[Jan Klimkowski]

From the land that gave us liberté, égalité, fraternité....

France football heads mired in race row over alleged quotas for ethnic players

Senior heads of national team allegedly approved system to limit black players and those of north African origins

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 April 2011 15.53 BST

France has been plunged into a fresh race crisis after claims that football officials tried to limit black and Arab players on youth training schemes to make the French team more white.

The French football federation has opened an internal investigation after website Mediapart reported that top management approved a quota system to limit young black players and those of north African origin emerging as candidates for the national team. The alleged plan involved limiting non-white youngsters as young as 12 or 13 from entering the selection process through training centres and academies.

"For the top brass in French football, the issue is settled: there are too many blacks, too many Arabs, and not enough white players in French football," the website said.

According to Mediapart, one of the most senior football federation figures wanted to set a cap of 30% on players of certain origins, but insisted at a meeting the quota should be kept quiet. At another meeting, the French national team coach Laurent Blanc allegedly backed changing youth talent selection criteria to favour players with "our culture, our history". Sources claimed Blanc cited current world champions Spain, saying: "The Spanish, they say: 'We don't have a problem. We have no blacks.'"

Amid stupefaction from players, the French governmenthas asked for clarification from the football federation, which has denied setting out a quota policy.

The federation's national technical director, François Blaquart, said the organisation's "only problem" was with dual national players who were trained by France and then went off to play for other countries. He said this applied to players of all races.

The French team's media officer, Philippe Tournon, said Blanc "categorically denies that he could have supported selections based on ethnicity or skin colour". He added that "it goes against his philosophy" and said that Blanc was "outraged" by the allegations.

The issue hit a raw nerve in France in 1998, where their World Cup victory by a multicultural team led by Zinedine Zidane was hailed as "black, blanc, beur", and was said to symbolise a new beginning for a mixed nation, but it mainly gave way to great unease and bickering over the racial profile of "Les Bleus". Not only did the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen complain of too many black people in the team, a leading Socialist regional head, the late Georges Frêche, was expelled from his party in 2007 for making the same observation.

Crucially, the French team's mutiny at the World Cup last summer was privately blamed by some on black or Muslim players, including the French convert to Islam, Franck Ribéry. Speculation was that the team had fragmented over the lack of the football team's "national identity".

One of the first measures taken by Blanc a World Cup winner from 1998 when he became coach of the French team last summer was to stop the team policy of eating only halal meat.

Mediapart said federation officials had even challenged the morphology of black players. The website claimed Blanc had suggested that a stereotype of player, which he described as "large, strong, powerful", needed to be changed. Blanc allegedly told a meeting of senior federation figures: "And who are the large, strong, powerful? The blacks. That's the way it is. It is a current fact. God knows that in the training centres and football academies, there are lots."

Counting people by race or ethnic origin even for census purposes or for statistics research is banned in France, a state which, in theory, is blind to race or religion. The notion of quotas is fundamentally anti-republican.

Henri Guaino, Nicolas Sarkozy's special advisor, said he was "viscerally opposed to any form of quota", adding: "Setting quotas would be the end of the republic."

Lilian Thuram, a World Cup hero who is outspoken on racism and once accused Sarkozy of judging people along race lines, commented on the row: "Initially I thought this was a joke. I'm so stunned I don't know what to say." He added that if the reports were true, the scandal would run and run.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr...l-race-row

[Jan Klimkowski]

The Rainbow Nation? :loo:

Patrick Vieira shocked by 'scandalous' France race quota allegations

World Cup winner angered by claims

Calls for more officials to be suspended

Press Association guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 May 2011 12.59 BST

Patrick Vieira has said he is shocked at reports that the France coach Laurent Blanc and other officials discussed introducing quotas to limit the number of non-white players in the national team set-up.

The French website Mediapart alleged last week that plans to restrict the numbers of black players and those of north African origin entering national training centres at the age of 12 were discussed at a meeting in November between Blanc, the French Football Federation technical director François Blaquart, the Under-21 coach Erick Mombaerts and the Under-20 coach Francis Smerecki.

Blanc strongly denied the story on Friday, telling L'Equipe: "This project does not exist. All that, for me, is false."

Blaquart was suspended from his post on Saturday, pending the outcome of investigations by the FFF which began this week.

The Manchester City midfielder Vieira told Le Monde: "This story is scandalous. I'm shocked. I would never have imagined that the football chiefs in our country could have such conversations about the France team in the body of the federation. Never. I know Laurent Blanc, I've always had a good relationship with him. I don't believe he's racist, but I'm surprised as to the degree of his comments.

"When I read that he has said, 'The Spaniards, they don't have a problem because they don't have any blacks' or 'What is there that is big, strong, powerful? The blacks', it's scandalous. These are serious comments. People can tell me what they want, but no one was trapped during this meeting. No one was forced anyone to say these comments and still they said them. It's a fact, that's shocking."

Vieira, who was born in Senegal and moved to France as a child, questioned the decision to single out Blaquart, who denies any wrongdoing, for a suspension.

"It's difficult to suspend just one person when others had the same type of discussion," he said. "It would have been more logical to suspend everyone who, like him, said the same things. It's not up to me to say who should go, but I would not have been able to understand how these directors, who were at the meeting, could stay in their jobs.

"If these people stay, then that's the door open to all discriminations. If football really wants to fight against this scourge, if the FFF want to show that they have the values of the Republic, then there are strong decisions that must be made. They shouldn't forget that they are the elite of football. It's they who will design the French football of tomorrow. It's they who are supposed to defend community harmony."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/...ench-quota

[Magda Hassan]

Since when does a football association allow the National Front to be in charge of the selection committee?

[Jan Klimkowski]

French government declares Nothing to see here, move along....

France coach Laurent Blanc cleared of alleged discrimination

Blanc absolved of blame following government inquiry

'No fact shows Laurent Blanc approves of discrimination'

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 May 2011 13.23 BST

The French football coach Laurent Blanc has been cleared by the government of any wrongdoing in the row over race quotas for the national team.

The sports minister, Chantal Jouanno, announced that Blanc was not guilty of racial discrimination after leaked secret recordings revealed that a football federation meeting discussed limiting the number of black and north African players in the national squad.

"No fact shows that Laurent Blanc approves of discriminatory procedures," Jouanno said. But she said the coaches' discussion at a meeting last November was "clumsy and clearly uncalled-for" as well as borderline racist.

Two inquiries one by the French sports ministry and one by the French Football Federation were launched after the Mediapart website revealed that Blanc and other officials had discussed introducing quotas on the number of dual-nationality players at youth training academies.

Blanc is not totally in the clear until the results of the second inquiry by the football federation are released this afternoon.

Jouanno said Blanc "was attending this kind of meeting for the very first time. He did not have any project [to limit the number of black and Arab players], no fixed opinion." She concluded that no quota system for players was put in place so the law against racial discrimination had not been broken.

Blanc had been criticised by former teammates in the multicultural 1998 World Cup-winning France side but others such as then captain Didier Deschamps, as well as influential figure Zinedine Zidane, have backed Blanc to stay on.