Paris (CNN) -- Top French Football Federation officials have allegedly discussed potential quotas to limit the numbers of African players entering youth training academies, according to a transcript of a secretly taped conversation revealed by the French investigative website Mediapart.
The verbatim report shows a meeting last November between the National Technical Director (DTN) in charge of youth coaching policies, François Blaquart, France manager Laurent Blanc and other football officials.
In the transcript, Blanc and Blaquart discuss the problem of dual-nationality players who are trained in French academies at a young age and then leave to play for their other country at an international level.
In the extract an under-21 coach puts forward the idea of limiting the number of dual national players to 30 percent. Blaquart's is quoted by the website as answering: "We can mark out, in an unspoken way, a sort of quota. But it needs to remain unspoken."
Mediapart cites Blanc as saying, "You have the impression that they really train the same prototype of players, big, strong, powerful... What is there that is currently big, strong, powerful? The blacks. And that's how it is. ...God knows that in the training centers... well, there are many."
"I think we need to refocus, above all for boys aged between 13 and 14, 12 and 13, to have other criteria, modified with our own culture," Blanc added.
Last Friday, Blanc denied there had ever been talks of quotas and a day later he released a statement saying, "I admit that certain remarks made during a work meeting on a sensitive subject could be ambiguous when taken out of context, and I am sorry if I have hurt some feelings."
Two investigations are underway by the French Football Federation and France's sports ministry in order to verify the information provided by the Mediapart website. Blaquart has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.
French Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno told French radio RTL that the comments published by Mediapart were "serious" and she expects conclusions to the enquiries by next Monday.
Various French sporting figures have spoken out against the controversial comments.
Lilian Thuram, a 1998 world cup winner and Blanc's former teammate, has called for the resignation of any official who holds discriminatory views.
Former French professional tennis player Yannick Noah said: "For me it's a sign of ignorance, you can be a very good coach but I think if everything is confirmed it's a big mistake."
