France's soccer coach ducks race-row

According to emerging reports from the European Press, the French national football coach Laurent Blanc has been given the clean chit in an alleged race row, by the country's sports minister Chantal Jouanno.

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Blanc was alleged to have supported a system that was to be implemented in order to reduce the number of dual-nationality players opting to represent other countries at senior level after emerging through the French system. It was also claimed that the coach had said: "The Spanish, they say, 'We don't have a problem. We have no blacks'." Blanc had refuted these allegations saying that his remarks had been blown out of proportions, a stand that was backed by Jouanno on Tuesday.

Jouanno said that there was no evidence that the coach had broken any law by discussing that there should be a limit to the number of black and Arab players representing the French Youth teams.

Blanc had earlier apologised for hurting sentiments on a matter on which his words were taken out of context. ""I admit that certain terms, used during a work meeting on a sensitive and wide-ranging subject, could be interpreted ambiguously if removed from their context and if I hurt anyone's feelings, I apologise," Blanc had said in a statement.