Laurent Blanc Cleared In French Football Federation Racism Row

Mohammed Belkacemi has admitted leaking recordings of the now infamous meeting in which the French Football Federation’s ‘ethnic quota’ plan came to life. Belkacemi passed along a recording of the meeting to other officials in the organisation, who leaked it to the press, ultimately resulting in Mediaparte breaking the news of the scandal and caused general uproar. Originally the FFF denied that any such quota was discussed, but the recordings themselves soon surfaced, and they don’t look great for many, including Laurent Blanc:

But that disgrace, quite frankly, is nothing compared to the shame the FFF are facing over this.

Except, according to a report that ran in Mediapart, that’s exactly what they’ve gone and done. In a remarkable turn of events, members of the FFF apparently angered by the move have leaked the details of a ‘secret agreement’ to limit the number of players of African and North African descent in French football academies to no more than 30% of the class. The FFF is rather stridently denying that any such ‘ethnic quota’ exists but Mediapart are more than happy to stick to their story, claiming ‘irrefutable evidence’ that their claims are true.

I think everyone who’s pro-sanity is hoping that Mediapart are indeed wrong, because there’s absolutely no way to paint the story they’ve released as anything but gross racism. Eurosport have also released a story quoting president Fernand Duchaussoyas saying that this is a misunderstanding regarding players with dual nationality, but the FFF’s going to have a lot of explaining to do to alleviate everyone’s concerns about this.