Paris, France - In a follow-up to a story FIRST brought to you by Our News Now in June of 2010, French Soccer officials have denied having any knowledge of a meeting where France coaches discussed quotas restricting African players in their youth training programs. It is a turn-around in a country that celebrated diversity after France won the World Cup in New York in 1998 but was then booted from the event 12 years later.

French media outlet Mediapart reported this week that national coach Laurent Blanc and other coaches discussed the quotas at a meeting last November and secretly approved a quota selection process to restrict the number of young African and North-African players in youth training centers to 30 per cent, reducing the number of African candidates for the national team.

The Clairefontaine training camp, one of the centers made aware of the quota system, once coached France stars Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Louis Saha and William Gallas, all of whom are of African decent. The FFF have denied any knowledge of the discussion and has promised an investigation.

The scandal has re-opened the racism debate in French soccer, which has served as a subtext for the overall issues surrounding race, immigration and nationalism in France. But the talk of racial quotas emerged immediately after the French team was bounced in the first round of last year's World Cup in South Africa.

The World Soccer governing body, FIFA, has said it would consider banning France if such a discriminating measure were put into place. Last month, France put in place a law that bans full veils on Muslim women in France, many of whom come from the African continent.