France Football Federation member gets benched

30/04/11 16:50 CET

world news

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The Technical Director of the French Football Federation has been suspended amid claims of project to implement racial quotas in youth academies.

Francois Blaquart was temporarily relieved of his duties pending an federation investigation into the allegations made by French investigative website Mediapart.

On the site Blaquart was allegedly quoted as saying ‘‘Yes we need quotas but we have to keep it a secret.’‘

On Saturday, Mediapart published a verbatim report of a meeting at which France coach Laurent Blanc and Blaquart, among others, had a debate over players with dual nationality groomed in France eventually opting to play for their country of origin.

Blanc has strongly denied favouring quotas in the country’s youth acadamies.

The French Football Federation said in a statement the investigation was expected to be completed before the end of next week.

More about: Controversy, Football, France

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