Blanc calls for Diarra leniency

France coach Laurent Blanc has called for Alou Diarra to be treated with leniency, as the Bordeaux captain awaits punishment for pushing a referee in a league game at the weekend.

“I hope the punishment takes into account that Alou Diarra is really a good boy,” Blanc told AFP on Tuesday.

“It’s very unfortunate for him. Knowing him, he must be massively angry with himself. He realised straight away that he’d made a huge mistake.”

Diarra was sent off in Bordeaux’s 1-0 win at Auxerre on Saturday after reacting to a yellow card shown to him by referee Wilfried Bien by shoving the official in the chest.

Nancy striker Youssouf Hadji was handed a six-month ban, subsequently reduced, after committing a similar offence last season.

The disciplinary commission of France’s Professional Football League (LFP) are due to begin studying Diarra’s case on Thursday.

The 29-year-old immediately apologised to Bien after the incident and French media reports have suggested he may therefore escape with a one-month ban.

Diarra was captain of Bordeaux under Blanc when they won the French league title in 2009 and he has worn the captain’s armband in France’s last three Euro 2012 qualifiers.

“Sometimes when you’re in the car, someone does something to you and you have a reaction that lasts two seconds, which you regret on the third second,” continued Blanc.

“The only problem is that there was the first and the second. That’s what happened to him.”

Blanc, who rotated the captaincy in the early games of his tenure as coach, said a definitive decision on France’s long-term skipper would be taken “at the end of the sporting year”.