France coach Didier Deschamps has attacked Paris Saint-Germain’s alleged racial profiling of players as “unacceptable and intolerable”.
Last week French investigative website Mediapart claimed that the Ligue 1 club’s talent scouts operated a system of racial profiling for years.
The revelations prompted the French champions to launch an immediate investigation.
PSG’s general manager Jean-Claude Blanc acknowledged that the practice which is illegal in France did take place but he blamed the scandal on a “handful of individuals” acting on their own.
Deschamps gave a forthright response when tackled on the affair at a training camp for France’s Nations League game against the Netherlands on Friday.
“I’ll keep this short, they are simply unacceptable and intolerable actions,” the France boss said.
Mediapart, citing the latest series of Football Leaks documents, said that between 2013 and this year, PSG’s scouting department filled in recruitment forms on potential youth signings that included a section on ethnicity.
The section offered four options: French, West Indian, North African, African.
Documenting information on racial or ethnic origins is outlawed in France.
The club said an internal probe was launched last month “to understand how such practices could exist and decide what measures to take”.
