In broadcast remarks, Joanno said she had never heard Blanc make a racist statement, and she pointed to the multi-racial composition of the French soccer team.

But another former French soccer star, Lilian Thuram from Guadeloupe, expressed concern.

Thuram told TF1 television he feared the allegations of discrimination within the soccer federation could be true. If so, it was very serious.

The allegations are a blow for a national soccer team that was once a symbol of a multi-racial and united France in 1998, when it won the World Cup.

The issue also comes at a particularly sensitive time in France, following controversial national debates over diversity and Muslims. And a year before presidential elections, recent polls show surging support for the leader of the far-right National Front Party.

"We have had many political actions, which stigmatized huge parts of the French population, and soccer looks like society itself," says SOS Racism's Guillaume Aime.

But Aime believes the majority of French are very upset about the racism allegations in French soccer and, if they are proved true, will demand change.

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