French postpone decision on Blanc future

28 June 2012 18:48

The French Football Federation on Thursday elected to postpone a decision on the future of coach Laurent Blanc, the coach revealed following talks with FFF chairman Noel Le Graet.

Le Graet has been mulling France's options after their Euro 2012 quarter-final exit to Spain, which achieved the minimum target for Les Bleus - though the image of the squad was tarnished by altercations between Samir Nasri and the media and other stories of unrest in the camp.

"We share many points of view," said Blanc after his discussions with Le Graet - not generally regarded as an ally of the former France international.

Blanc revealed the pair have elected to wait and give it "48 hours to think things over" before deciding whether he should stay in a post he took after succeeding the much-maligned Raymond Domenech after a catastrophic last World Cup.

"We talked and both gave our view of the situation. We had a little technical overview of the Euros. It was all very courteous. We share many points of view.

"Beyond that it is first of all a personal thing as far as I am concerned. That's why we haven't taken a decision and we are going to take 48 hours to think it over," Blanc explained after talks at the Federation

"I said what I had to say. I think he told me what he had to say and that's a good thing," said Blanc, whose contract runs out this weekend.

Blanc had requested a contract extension before the tournament while Le Graet made that conditional on France getting out of the group.

They did so - but only as runners-up to England, meaning they were saddled with a match against defending champions Spain, who proved a bridge too far.

Source: AFP