French sports minister Chantal Jouanno has announced a ministerial enquiry into Mediapart's exclusive revelations, published Thursday, that members of the National Technical Board of the French Football Federation (FFF) had agreed a secret plan to impose quotas on the number of young black players and those of North African origin emerging from its training academies for selection in the national teams.
"It is unthinkable because it runs contrary of the history and spirit of the French Football federation" she told French TV news channel LCI late Thursday, adding; "It is above all contrary to the law and the constitution."
"It is fundamentally contrary to the spirit of sport because in sport, the only selection worth the name is, on the one hand, a player's sporting talent and, on the other, their ethics and respect for the jersey," she continued. "It does not depend on their origins or skin colour."
In a communiqué released by her ministry, Jouanno said she took act "of the FFF's denial that such a policy existed and invites it to very rapidly shed every light on the allegations contained in the [Mediapart] article."
She told RMC radio on Friday morning that her ministry would "put in place an inspection mission to be able to have a neutral insight into this affair."
Meanwhile, FFF president Fernand Duchaussoy expressed his "surprise" at the revelations that National Technical Board (DNT) head François Blaquart had promoted the quota plan. "The question should be put to François Blaquart," he said. "There was an instance last week of the Federal Council and there was never any question of that. It shocks me."
France under-20s coach Francis Smerecki also expressed surprise at the revelations. "I have just learnt the news," he said. "We had discussions but they were about the dual nationality of certain players. Beyond that, I did not know that an instruction [on quotas] existed."
As for France national team coach Laurent Blanc, who Mediapart revealed was also involved in promoting the quota plan, the team's press attaché Philippe Tournon told French press agency AFP on Friday: "Laurent Blanc denies the reports that are inept and contrary to his philosophy. Laurent Blanc is outraged that he can have been accused in this way, for him all discrimination is insupportable."
He added that the FFF had discussed the issue of young players with non-French ethnic backgrounds who hold dual nationality. "We have many players with dual nationality among the young and some of whom later don't want to go into the France team," he said. "It's a choice, it must be recognised. But these problems were not discussed at the Federal council."
'French football is racist, it excludes'
André Merelle, former head of the French National Football Institute, the INF (Institut National du Football ), based at the Clairefontaine national training centre west of Paris, told RMC radio that he had witnessed dubious methods used to reduce the number of players of Afro and Arab origins from entering training academies. "Yes, it was under [former DNT head] Gérard Houllier," he said. "There were no quotas as such, but considerations about the number of blacks and beurs [North Africans]. For them, including François Blaquart there were too many. But I didn't understand why there were too many relative to our poor little whites."
"But you have to face the truth, the best were those who came from the suburbs," he added, referring to the country's sprawling suburban housing estates often home to France's immigrant communities.
France team coordinator Henri Emile adamantly denied the quota charge. "Laurent Blanc and all the members of the DTN can be shocked at the young internationals who move on to a foreign country," he said. "But there has never been a negative reflection [about this] with quotas. It is unthinkable."
Player's agent and former club manager of Olympique de Marseille, Pape Diouf - one of France's few black managers - told Mediapart he had not known of the existence of quotas. Speaking later on RMC radio he said French football was blighted by racism. "To know whether the meeting that is being talked about was held or not seems to me superfluous," he said, referring to the DTN meeting cited by Mediapart when the issue of quotas was detailed. "I'm not saying whether they're true, but these revelations do not astonish me. The truth is this, French football is an image of society. French football is racist, it excludes."
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