French football chief gives backing to Domenech

France coach Raymond Domenech was told on Saturday that his job is safe irrespective of how the national side performs in their key World Cup qualifiers against Lithuania.

Domenech’s 2006 World Cup finalists are struggling in Group Seven, five points behind Serbia and the Lithuanains who they meet in Kaunus later Saturday and again at the Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday.

Despite the need for wins in both fixtures to boost their hopes of making it to South Africa next year French Football Federation (FFF) president Jean-Pierre Escalattes assured Domenech his position was safe.

“Oh, he doesn’t risk anything in particular (in the event of poor results against Lithuania),” Escalettes told L’Equipe television.

“The (FFF) board has made its decision, he was confirmed (in his role). And they said at the time that Raymond would stay until the end of this qualification process.

“We’e not going to review that after the third, fourth, fifth match…no way! that would destabilise the team.

“Raymond’s here until the end.”

Escalettes added: “If we don’t pick up six points we’ll of course be disappointed, but we have to look around us at an extremely tight group without jumping to hasty conclusions.

“Let things run their course right to the end. It’s going to mean extraordinary suspense for us. And if after all this drama we qualify then we’ll be saying to ourselves how thrilling all that suspense was”.

Domenech’s job was firmly on the line after France crashed out of Euro 2008 but after an internal FFF inquiry he survived the sack albeit with a redefined role.