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| arsene wenger |
By Chris Harris
Arsène Wenger believes that quality, not race, is all that should matter in football.
The Arsenal manager's homeland has been hit by controversy this week after Les Bleus' coach Laurent Blanc allegedly expressed support for a quota on the number of dual-nationality players at France's youth academies.
The World Cup-winning centre back is now under investigation and Wenger admits that Blanc's reported remarks came as a surprise to him. The 61-year-old is a long-time opponent of quotas and spoke out again ahead of Sunday's trip to Stoke.
"I feel your national football has to be identified by the culture of the football and the quality of your education, not by where people come from," said Wenger.
"It is on line with what I said before, that no matter where you come from if you are good enough you play. That’s why it is so important that politics is not involved in that. The quota system is an open door to mediocrity and doesn’t reward quality. We have one advantage in sport, it’s only down to quality.
"I was surprised by his comments but I know Laurent Blanc well," added Wenger. "At the start, it was a technical debate that has turned the wrong way and that they should have kicked out straight away.
"They were thinking that we want to educate our players better at 10 to 12 years of age and then one of the issues was bi-nationality. In France, we have many immigrants so many of them are Moroccan and French, Algerian and French. Many of them choose to play for their country because they have no real hope to play for France. Nasri plays for France, Zidane played for France, Desailly too.
"For many years, when we could not change more nationalities we blocked them early. Give him a national cap early for the Under-18s and then he cannot play for his country any more. On that front, we are not completely clean. So we cannot complain today that people go when they have no chance to play for France.
"I find it good that they play for their country. If they can improve the quality of the game in their country then that is good."
Despite the row enveloping his home country, Wenger insists that race is not a serious problem in France.
"I personally believe that France is not a racist country at all," he said. "The preferred personality in France is Yannick Noah. The captain of the French national team is Alou Diarra.
"I believe the racism issue that has been raised is wrong because France is not a racist country. But the least you can say is that the discussion at the FFF was clumsy and should not have existed at all."
Arsène Wenger believes that quality, not race, is all that should matter in football.
The Arsenal manager's homeland has been hit by controversy this week after Les Bleus' coach Laurent Blanc allegedly expressed support for a quota on the number of dual-nationality players at France's youth academies.
The World Cup-winning centre back is now under investigation and Wenger admits that Blanc's reported remarks came as a surprise to him. The 61-year-old is a long-time opponent of quotas and spoke out again ahead of Sunday's trip to Stoke.
"I feel your national football has to be identified by the culture of the football and the quality of your education, not by where people come from," said Wenger.
"It is on line with what I said before, that no matter where you come from if you are good enough you play. That’s why it is so important that politics is not involved in that. The quota system is an open door to mediocrity and doesn’t reward quality. We have one advantage in sport, it’s only down to quality.
"I was surprised by his comments but I know Laurent Blanc well," added Wenger. "At the start, it was a technical debate that has turned the wrong way and that they should have kicked out straight away.
"They were thinking that we want to educate our players better at 10 to 12 years of age and then one of the issues was bi-nationality. In France, we have many immigrants so many of them are Moroccan and French, Algerian and French. Many of them choose to play for their country because they have no real hope to play for France. Nasri plays for France, Zidane played for France, Desailly too.
"For many years, when we could not change more nationalities we blocked them early. Give him a national cap early for the Under-18s and then he cannot play for his country any more. On that front, we are not completely clean. So we cannot complain today that people go when they have no chance to play for France.
"I find it good that they play for their country. If they can improve the quality of the game in their country then that is good."
Despite the row enveloping his home country, Wenger insists that race is not a serious problem in France.
"I personally believe that France is not a racist country at all," he said. "The preferred personality in France is Yannick Noah. The captain of the French national team is Alou Diarra.
"I believe the racism issue that has been raised is wrong because France is not a racist country. But the least you can say is that the discussion at the FFF was clumsy and should not have existed at all."
source : arsenal.com
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