Blanc ´not favourite´ for France job, says French chief

French Football Federation (FFF) president Jean-Pierre Escalettes says he has never identified Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc as the favourite to succeed Raymond Domenech as coach of France.

In an interview appearing in Tuesday’s edition of French regional daily Sud-Ouest, Escalettes said: “If I hadn’t said that the coach of the reigning French champions (Blanc), and a former world champion, wasn’t on the list of 10 or 12 names, you’d laugh in my face.

“But I’ve never said that he was the favourite. We’re working on the profile of the next coach, but neither me nor my colleagues have attempted to approach Laurent Blanc. We have to let him finish his season.

“The only certain thing is that the coach will be French.”

Blanc, who has coached reigning French champions Bordeaux since 2007, was named by Escalettes in January on a shortlist to replace Domenech that also included Alain Boghossian, current Marseille coach Didier Deschamps and Jean Tigana.

Domenech, who has coached Les Bleus since 2004, will step down from his position after this year’s World Cup in South Africa. His successor will be announced by the FFF prior to the tournament in April or May.

The timing of the announcement has been criticised by Domenech and some of his players, but Escalettes said the issue was not open for discussion.

“I’m not going back into that,” he said. “It’s not up to me but the calendar. One month after July 11 (date of the World Cup final), we begin preparations for Euro 2012. The dates are there.”

Escalettes conceded that France’s current position, after their underwhelming World Cup qualifying campaign, was “not great”, but reaffirmed that he would not leave his post before 2012.

“In the middle of the storm, the captain doesn’t let go of the tiller,” he said.