France still a fearsome proposition: Blanc

The coach of French champions Bordeaux, Laurent Blanc, said Thursday he believed that France were still a fearsome force in international football, despite their struggle to qualify for the World Cup finals.

France “are still to be feared, especially abroad,” insisted Blanc, who helped his country to the 1998 final which he missed through suspension.

After just struggling past Ireland in the playoffs thanks to a goal which followed a clear and admitted handball by Thierry Henry, France found themselves unseeded.

But Blanc said he did “not find that illogical given their qualifying showing.”

Les Bleus missed out owing to the complex way in which FIFA calculated the seeds and Blanc said he shared a widespread French view that had their general record been taken into account they could have expected a better rating.

“It depends on the criteria you use. Apparently, it matters not that we reached the final in 2006.

“If the criteria are the qualifiers then, given the results we had it is not illogical we were not seeded,” Blanc said.

“We are disappointed not to be. It is an advantage to be seeded. But I can tell you that the seeds will above all want to avoid France in pot four.”