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France coach Laurent Blanc has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Sports Ministry’s investigation into the racism row that has shaken French football, Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno said on Tuesday.

Blanc attended a meeting in November at which members of the French football federation (FFF) discussed the idea of enforcing limits on black and Arab players in youth academies.

“There is nothing leading to say that Laurent Blanc is backing discriminatory practices,” Jouanno told a news conference.

“Laurent Blanc was attending this kind of meeting for the very first time. He did not have any project (to limit the number of Black and Arab players), no fixed opinion.”

Jouanno added that the investigation did not find enough evidence to launch a judicial procedure although she reiterated that racial quota enforcement was illegal in France.

“There is no element, no accumulation of evidence that leads us to believe there was discrimination,” she said. “There are not enough grounds to refer it to the prosecutor’s office.”

Federation technical director Francois Blaquart, who used the word ‘quotas’ in the November meeting, has been suspended pending the inquiry and a separate federation probe is also looking into the issue.

Jouanno said she did not have the authority to sanction the technical director, but would ask the FFF to launch an audit into Blaquart’s responsibilities.

The FFF will present its investigation’s findings at a news conference later on Tuesday with Blanc still not totally in the clear.

The coach has been slammed by former team mates from the multicultural 1998 World Cup-winning France side but others such as then captain Didier Deschamps and influential French great Zinedine Zidane have backed Blanc to stay on.

REUTERS