Tigana or Blanc must pick up the pieces

SOCCER/ International News: It may still be struggling to put a hugely disappointing Euro 2004 campaign behind it but the French Football Federation (FFF) will attempt to sort out a key aspect of its future over the coming week and a half when it decides on Jacques Santini's successor as national team coach.

The new man, whose initial task will be to rebuild and guide the team through a World Cup qualification group that includes the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and Israel, is due to be named on Friday week and though there are officially nine candidates in the running it is widely expected that either Laurent Blanc or Jean Tigana will be appointed.

Clearly hedging his bets until after the new coach is in place, Zinedine Zidane told French television over the weekend he would not make any decision on whether to end his international career until he has had the chance to devote some, "calm reflection" to the matter.

Zidane appears to be open to persuasion that there is still a role for him within the national team set-up and he is expected to hold talks with Santini's replacement within a matter of days of the new man being confirmed in the job.

The issue of who to appoint appears to have reinforced existing divisions within the FFF with federation president Claude Simonet coming out in support of Blanc while his deputy, Michel Platini, has backed Tigana, his former team-mate and friend from the 1984 European Championship winning French side.

The 49-year-old former Fulham coach is highly respected in France, where he enjoyed a hugely successful career as a player at club level and where, as coach of Monaco, he won a league title in 1997.

Blanc, in contrast, has not coached at all since retiring as a player 12 months ago but is well liked and respected by members of the current squad, almost all of whom he has played with. It is believed the former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Manchester United defender would stand a particularly strong chance of persuading key veterans like Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele to stay on for one more campaign. Quite how many either man would want to keep, however, remains to be seen, and some, Marcel Desailly amongst them, seem certain to have played their last games for the national team.

Though Blanc's complete lack of management experience is obviously a factor in the present debate it is not one Platini can particularly exploit given that he himself became national team coach in 1989 without having prepared for the role at club level.

"He could be a good coach," says Simonet of Blanc. "I tell myself that such a candidacy shouldn't be rejected. What Michel Platini could do," he adds somewhat mischievously, "it seems to me that Laurent Blanc, whose qualities are equally enormous, could maybe also try."

Santini, meanwhile, has blamed the players for the team's disappointing showing at these finals, accusing them of "complacency", in the wake of a 3-0 pre-tournament win over Germany. "I thought once we got to the knockout stages their experience would tell but it didn't happen," said the soon-to-be Spurs coach, who has himself been criticised for his team selections and tactics and the timing of the announcement that he would be leaving once this competition was out of the way.