A Fresh French Scandal

**SkStu** · 30/04/2011, 2:29 AM

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

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.

Italy and Spain seem to bear the brunt of the accusations of rampant racism in their societies but France is arguably worse esoecially considering the rise of right wing extremists like the LePens.

**Eminence Grise** · 30/04/2011, 1:28 PM

Off the Ball had a French journalist on yesterday who refuted the claims made by Mediapart, and pretty much accused them of shoddy journalism in taking quotes out of context to create a story where none existed. He sounded genuinely angry about it, and made a point that the website very rarely does anything sports related.

So far, though, that’s the only view I’ve heard that doesn’t take the Mediapart line in its entirety. The original article is here http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/inte...irs-et-darabes in French, but needs a subscription to read further. The opening is pretty sensationalist.

On its homepage, meanwhile, it publishes an extract from the meeting:
Laurent Blanc: Qu'est-ce qu'il y a actuellement comme grands, costauds, puissants ? Les blacks (...) Je crois qu'il faut recentrer, surtout pour des garçons de 13-14 ans, 12-13 ans, avoir d'autres critères, modifiés avec notre propre culture (...) Les Espagnols, ils m'ont dit: “Nous, on n'a pas de problème. Nous, des blacks, on n'en a pas”.»
Erick Mombaerts: Est-ce qu'on s'attelle au problème et on limite l'entrée du nombre de gamins qui peuvent changer de nationalité?
Laurent Blanc: Moi j'y suis tout à fait favorable.
François Blaquart: On peut s'organiser, en non-dit, sur une espèce de quota. Mais il ne faut pas que ce soit dit.
Erick Mombaerts: Donc il faut 30% ? (...) Il y a bien des clubs comme Lyon qui le font dans leur centre de formation.
Francis Smerecki: Je dis: première chose, c'est discriminatoire.

In quick translation
Laurent Blanc: Who are actually big, beefy and strong? The blacks (...) I think we must refocus, especially for boys of 13-14, 12-13 years, to have other criteria, modified for our culture (...) The Spanish said to me: “We don’t have a problem. We don’t have any blacks.”
Erick Mombaerts: Can we tackle the problem and limit the entry of boys who can change their nationality?
Laurent Blanc: I’m all in favour.
François Blaquart: We could organise it, without saying it, with a type of quota. But it must not be said.
Erick Mombaerts: So, 30% is needed? (...) There are clubs like Lyon who do it in their academies
Francis Smerecki: I say, first of all, it’s discriminatory.

So, what to make of that?

**ped_ped** · 30/04/2011, 5:50 PM

Absolute disgrace. If this is proven, what could happen to the FFF?

**Eminence Grise** · 30/04/2011, 6:51 PM

You'd hope that an international ban would come into force - which it would were it a little country, insignificant to FIFA. I don't have enough of the facts to know exactly what was said, or in what context so I won't second guess the outcome of any inquiry - political or football - except to surmise that if anybody is found culpable, it will be of something minor, and they will be scapegoated to protect the upper echelons of the FFF.

The broader issue is that proven or disproven it will have a political impact. Football has been one of the big unifying factors in France, which has a long history of race issues bubbling away beneath the surface, hence the FN and the le Pen family's continued parasitic grip on some voters. If it solidifies resentment against the right-wing Sarko government and the FN then it may actually be a good thing, and pull France back from the rightwing tendency we're seeing across Europe. Less optimistically, I'd be more inclined to think that it will further polarise French society, and may have the effect of driving promising young French players with African heritage to the countries of their parents and grandparents. That, perversely, would actually achieve what seems to be the FFF objective, and without the federation having to look bad - like racists.

It's head spinningly wrong on so many levels. You'd hope for justice to be seen to be done. But this is football, and I have little faith in FIFA's dispensing of justice.

**Eminence Grise** · 02/05/2011, 10:02 AM

Blanc apologises, and claims the quota was intended to prevent players trained by French elite academies switching allegiance to other countries, and that his words were taken out of context.

“It would be in bad faith not to see that the debate in which I participated was not about ‘reducing the number of blacks and Arabs in French football,’ as the sensational title of the article suggested, but about planning the future of French football and addressing the important and delicate problem of players with dual-nationalities, as well as methods of scouting/selection for a new playing project,” he said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...295868481.html

It'll be interesting to see that the inquiry throws up.

**Charlie Darwin** · 03/05/2011, 3:29 AM

If Blanc is indeed admitting the words attributed to him are his, it's really hard to see how they could have been taken out of context.

**Eminence Grise** · 03/05/2011, 2:25 PM

The FFF launch in internal investigation.

'This commission will be composed of Patrick Braouezec, director of the Football Foundation, and Laurent Davenas, president of the National Council of Ethics.

'Alain Resplandy-Bernard, managing director of the FFF, will be responsible for ensuring correct conditions for the setting up of this commission which will work in co-ordination with the mission of general inspection of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. (http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2011/0503/blancl.html)

CD, is it possible that Blanc's words, rather than being taken out of context, were actully put into context by Mediapart? If he can claim that he was speaking in vague terms about ensuring only French nationals went through the system, he can wiggle out of it by accepting that - oh la la! zut alors!- his words could have had an unintended racist effect?