Football: Blanc cleared in race row

PARIS: France coach Laurent Blanc was cleared of any wrongdoing by the country’s sports minister Chantal Jouanno in the row over talks concerning the introduction of quotas for dual nationality players.

Jouanno said that there was no evidence that the 2001 law against discrimination had been broken.

Blanc appeared before a joint hearing of the French Football Federation (FFF) and the Sports Ministry.

The two-pronged inquiry was launched after the Mediapart website released a transcript of a meeting last November in which Blanc and French officials allegedly discussed introducing quotas on the number of dual-nationality players at youth training centres.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.