French national soccer coach Laurent Blanc was cleared of any wrongdoing on Tuesday by the French Sports Ministry in a discrimination dispute.

A media report published at the end of April by the website Mediapart indicated Blanc supported a quota system in France's youth soccer system that would limit the number of players with dual citizenship, mainly black and Arab players. This would prevent too many players from being developed in the French youth system and then going on to play for another country.

French Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno said Blanc had attended a meeting of the French Football Federation (FFF) where such a quota was brought up, but he offered no opinion and did not have any plan of his own in mind.

"There is nothing to suggest that Laurent Blanc in any way gave his support to discriminatory actions," Jouanno told a press conference that detailed the findings of the Sports Ministry's probe.

"Laurent Blanc took part in this type of meeting for the first time," she added. "He was neither the organizer nor the pilot. The hearings show that he came in on the debate and that he had no project or fixed opinion."

No evidence of quota system

However, FFF technical director Francois Blaquart could see consequences for his role in the meeting. Blaquart has been suspended since the start of the hearing, and Jouanno left his fate up to the FFF.

A simultaneous investigation by the FFF into the matter found that there was no evidence that a policy of quotas had been enforced.

The French Sports Ministry concluded that since a quota system had never actually been put into place and was only discussed, there was no need to pursue legal action.

Author: Matt Zuvela (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
Editor: Martin Kuebler