France's alleged quota system unravels

Christian Karembeu is from New Caledonia, not North Africa... Great article, and as a student of journalism, and arguably the biggest football fan I have encountered, I am aiming at becoming a Football Journalist. Though with such little news space given to the game, I worry that it will be possible for Football Journalists to survive. I have always said that if Football in Australia wants to survive, we have to all join and work together. Unfortunately, we are divided for whatever reasons, racial, social or even the far too common instances such as Euro snobs. If you love Football, then you love the game and should join in to make the game all that it can be in this country.

I'll also add that with dual nationalities If I studied at university. The government pays a large part of the education. Then I take that education and move overseas and therefore benefit the economy of other countries. I wouldn't be expected to pay the money back or be called a traitor by doing so. I think people just have to accept that people change nationality (although I support removing the parent rule. If you are going to change nationality you have to do it practically by actually living in that country and contributing to that society directly and not this representing my culture garbage)

That Pele fellow had pretty good technique as well, I believe.

Blanc should also remember than a multiracial team full of blacks and arabs defeated Spain in the 2006 worldcup round of 16 with Zidane (arab), Vieira (african) and Ribery (white) scoring the goals. France has consistently outperformed Spain at the top level whenever they meet. His argument, and that of Spain is thus based on racist views than reality.

You are tangling yourself up. Thierry Henry, Anelka and Saha are extremely technically talented and they are black. They are also very fast with powerful shots. So the idea that race has a factor on a player's technique is not supported by evidence. I'm also certain that the academies will recruit players with all sorts of talents. It does not make sense, going by your argument, that the academies will ignore technical players because anyone with some brain knows that a good soccer team needs all sorts of skills. So the argument being floated by the FFF does not hold water. Besides, North Africans have smaller frames and are the sort of skillful players that are needed(according to this quota system) yet they are the ones being capped! See Zidane, Nasri, Benzema etc. Don't defend the indefensible. As for players with dual nationalities, we all know that these players play for their parent countries for one reason: they have little hope of playing for their countries of birth. For example Chamakh plays for Morocco because he had no chance of playing for France and Bassong plays for Cameroon for the same reason. These countries need them more than France does. It does not mean they are less patriotic but it gives them an opportunity to play at events like world cups and enhance their profile. There is no exceptional French player that has refused to play for France.

in a round about way that shows how many 'NFL quality' athletes there must be running around in the NRL and Super rugby. NZ's population is over 20% polynesian, thats near 1 million. Even here there must be a bigger Samoan/Tongan population than 65,000.

http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/03/30/fifa-eligibility-laws-need-some-changes/ Here was my article about changing FIFA laws which would make this issue mute.

Personally the solution is to lobby FIFA to change their national representation criteria so that people aren't allowed to play for the country of their parents or grandparents birth unless they actually reside in that country for a couple of years. It's one of the few things that FIFA should copy ICC from cricket who removed the parent rule about a decade ago. As far as my values are. if you are born and raise in a particular country, you are that country nationality. Your ancestry doesn't come into it. You play for your country not your own race. However putting quotas on people because their ancestors were from another place is another thing. People who are born in a France are French and are equally french as people whose ancestor are french going back a long way. By introducing quotas system you are effectively saying that those people are less "french" then other people. How is that encouraging people to maintain France as their primary national identity is you are telling migrants that they are less French then other people. People often complain about how migrants and 2nd generation migrants don't assimilate and don't embrace the nation they are living in. How is this going to help? If anything this will worsen social division in the country. If you want 2nd generation migrants to stick to the country you got to make them feel welcome and make people feel like they are equals to the people whose family history has been there for many generations. I know that lobbying FIFA to change the rules may be unrealistic given that FIFA rarely change the rules out of anything. As a stopgap I would simply have players pay back the education fee with interest if they play for another national team. About the spainsh . Give me a break, I may accept that the mean curve of the black people in terms of physical triats may be superior to other race but to say that Spanish don't have a problem of picking physical players over technical players is a joke. Australian national team rarely has any black players but we often complain about how our youth development system is favoring physical players over technical players. There's enough physically strong white people to make that dilemma an internation one. The reason why spain don't have the problem is not because they aren't tempted by physically strong black players but because they stay true to the philosophy of technique. It looks like the French hasn't. I haven't called Blanc racist for him bringing up the race card but I just think it was unnecessary. My view is don't mention race unless you have to and I see no reason why Blanc should have pulled it ou Your interpretation of Blanc comment is basically saying that there is a discrimination against white players because the subconsciously or consciously believe that black players are better players. Well I guess that pretty much proves Roger Rational point that this is a variation of affirmative action.

With reference to Didulica, we had the chance to pick him but didn't. So he went to play for Croatia. I am convinced on seeing a segment on Seric that if he were starting his career now, he would play for Australia. Only Simunic is the traitor. But yws, if they come through the academy at taxpayers expense then they should sign a contract promising to pay back the money expended on them should they play for another country. Regarding France, it is a shame that such an enlightened representative of liberty fraternity and equality should resort to such measures more worthy of a Bourbon than a culture with such heroes as Boneparte and De Gaulle.

We've had the same issues with our own AIS graduates playing for other countries, most notably the 3 that played for the team against us at the World Cup (Seric, Didulica and Simunic) but instead of a quota on dual nationality players, I heard talk of players playing for other countries having to pay back their AIS scholarship.

Almost everyone agrees that selection for national and represenative teams should be solely on merit.However eligibility to be considered for the national team is quite another matter ie if you want the nation's sporting represenatives to be reflective of national demographics then consider this when making decisions about citizenship eligibility Bit late now for France

If you read the article above you'll find that all references to "White" people were made by either the author or the journalist he was referencing and not attributed to any member of the FFF. A link was posted below but this is another detailed link to the transcript in question http://www.sportsfeatures.com/soccernews/story/48553/blanc-at-risk-from-fall-out-in-france-over-new-ethnic-quotas-revelations. In particular, it points out that both Blasquart and Blanc were concerned at the number of senior internationals that were being produced for other countries (12 for Frane and 20 for other countries in what I would assume was their last graduating class). Considering that the FFF Development System is there to turn out players for the French national team, it is absolutely understandable that they would suggest a quota on the number of kids who could possibly change their national team loyalty later on. How is it unfair then to protect your own development system from giving others an unfair advantage? Whether or not trying to get more technical players reduces or increases the number of black players is not the point. It was never suggested that they were trying to reduce the number of black players, Blanc was merely pointing out on one occasion that the players that are dominating the academy system are predominantly black. The reference to the Spanish not having this problem could merely be that he sees a bias towards black players as academies automatically assume they will be better players. In that light the quote that Spain doesn't have this problem is absolutely correct, they can choose players purely on skill because their decision isn't clouded by beleiving automatically that one player is bigger or stronger than another.

In nowhere in that link did it suggest limiting dual-nationality players. It clearly said non-white players. Now I'm not saying that what you are saying is wrong but I'm hoping you can produce a link that suggest limitting dual-nationality players. I'll also state that FIFA regulations state that you are able to represent the country of your grandparents birth (by the way I believe that is a terrible rule and that FIFA should change the elegibility laws). If they are worried about losing players to other countries then are they planning to limit players who is born in France who therefore share "our culture, our history" because their parents and grandparents are born elsewhere. I wouldn't call that racist but I would say that is incredibly unfair that a French born player is at a disadvantage because their parents and grandparents are born in another country. Picking plaers based on ancestry is a frought business and not something I would approve of. I am a firm believer that national identity is based upon where you grew up in rather than genetics or family ancestry and that people who are born in France are French irrespective of who are their parents. I'll also say that I appreciate that they are going for more technical players instead of players based on physical strength. However people can make that same point without bringing race into it and that Blanc gotten himself in a needless controversy. The fact that black players may well have an advantage in physical strength in terms of the demographics of that race is only incidental. The black skin doesn't cause people to be stronger, it's the genes that determine physical strengt that does it and if that so happens to be more common in black people than so be it but being black has nothing to do with being physically stronger. There's no need for race to be entered in that discussion. If a change in emphasis to technique instead of physical strength causes less black players in the national side then so be it but there's no need to bang on about that when no one would seriously consider changing the emphasis to technical players to be considered "racist' I'll also add that if a focus to the technical players does occur there's no evidence that will reduce the composition of black players in the national team. They may be evidence of physical strength in black players (I'll take your word for it) but they isn't any evidence that white players are more skilful and technical then black players. It may simply be the case that white and black players have equal technique but black players get selected due to their physical advantage. So I don't see how Spain has the advantage because they have no black players.

Could it just be that a lot of the white population has become fat and lazy and has been pampered by over protective parents and wouldn't put in the gruelling, all out effort it takes to make it to the top of Football?

That's not what the quota was suggested for (you can follow the link posted below to a more detailed outline of the transcript) but in short the quotas were suggested in order to acheive the following goals - More players in the national team that share in the words of Blanc “our culture, our history”. Hence they wanted to limit the number of Dual-Nationality players that may go and play for other countries instead of representing France. - Reduce the emphasis on the stereotypical type of player which was the strong and powerful player the majority of which are black. I personally think that its not a great way to acheive the goals but it had litle to do with reflecting the wider ethnic community.

For it to be equivalent There has to be evidence that there are white players who are just as qualified or more qualified to make the national team but aren't due to discrimination and therefore people conclude that having quotas is the best way of ensuring that qualified white players make the national team. This isn't the scenario we are having here. This is a case of people arguing that the national football team should reflect the ethnic composition of the wider community. I see the first scenario as misguided and the second scenario to be downright wrong

I never made the assertion, I was referencing Blanc's comments. French football has a proud history of producing technically gifted players. In the words of the head of the National Technical Board, François Blaquar “prioritise intelligence in the game with respect to the technical and, above all, athletic aspect.” The problem is that race and colour are inextricably linked with certain physical traits. Without question, African kids are bigger stronger and more powerful (I've seen it here in our own State Development teams that have African kids that are more developed physically than their white counterparts). Blanc's quotes merely served to state the obvious that they needed to change the stereotype of the best type of player being “large, strong, powerful” and that "who are the large, strong, powerful? The blacks. That’s the way it is. It is a current fact. God knows that in the training centres and football academies, there are lots.” I don't see how this is at all racist? He then went on to say “The Spanish, they say 'we don’t have a problem. We have no blacks’”. Everyone else has then gone on to make their own conclusions about what he meant. It's true that the Spanish don't have the problem about picking physically strong and powerful players over others because they don't have any black players. The French do have a problem, not in that they have black players but in that they are dominating the academies and are by and large all strong and powerful which is excluding skillful players (whether black or white).

ALthough I don't agree with affirmative action I think the main differences is that there are barriers in opportunity for minority groups in reaching a high position in society. There's no social barriers for white people to get a job There's no reason why white shouldn't be able to succeed if they are good enough. People may argue that a black person with the same qualification and same merit as a white person will be disadvantage simply due to skin colour and unconscious racism etc (there are evidence that this does occur). That's why people call for affirmative actions and quota (let say this, if 50% of people you interview for a job is black and 0% of your workplace is black. Then the equal opportunities commision will ping you to hire more black people. Now there's a chance that it's possible that none of those black people aren't the best person for the job but since people can't prove that either way, the equal opportunities will just say that with basic probabilities of the demographics of job applicants, there is discrimination in your hiring practices) The call for quotas are not based on disparity in representation of society but on disparity of opportunities in society which is quite different. I support efforts to reduce the disparity of opportunities between different races (although not by affirmative actions) but not disparity in outcomes. Now I don't agree with affirmative action simply because I believe meritocracy should trump that and that it makes life difficult for the minority group who gets the job as there is a question marks whether they got the job legitimately or solely by skin colour. I think the answer is changing people attitude and not setting up quotas However despite my opposition they are very different in intents.

Seems a case of cutting your own throat if carried through.