As first reported by the French website Mediapart (in French) and reported this morning in depth by The Guardian. It seems as though senior officials in the French FA were trying to limit the amount of non white footballers playing the game at a youth level.
According to the sources cited on the French website, the manager of the national side and former captain of the side Laurent Blanc is quoted as saying, “our culture, our history.”
When speaking about the World Champion Spanish, they say: ‘We don’t have a problem. We have no blacks.'”
If these quotes are true then his position is untenable. The French Media Officer has categorically denied that Blanc has said these things but the eyes of the footballing world is now glaring at him and waiting for his next move.
The lead of the story says, “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.” Wow. Just wow.
It has been a terrible year for the French footballing wise with one of the most pathetic World Cup showings of all time. The French quite possibly should not have even been there as Ireland were beaten in the play-off by that handball ‘goal’ from Thierry Henry. So to go to the World Cup in South Africa and clearly a) not respect the manager and b) not respect the shirt disgusts me – and I’m not even French.
However the great French team that won the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championships in 2000 were led by non-natives. Zidane, Vieira, Henry, Wiltord, Djorkaeff etc… but now they want to make the team more white? This is not good. Not good at all.
This comes off of the back of the ban of the burka not too long ago. Is France becoming the most racist country in Europe? Over 50% of respondents do a survey earlier this month said that there are too many migrants in the country and many migrants are being rejected from jobs just because of their surnames. This is not fair nor is it right. The riots in 2005 showed something but the undertones are becoming stronger and I must say I find the whole French situation very worrying.
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