Raymond Domenech will stay on as France coach despite a humiliating first-round exit at last month's European Championship, the French federation said yesterday.

The decision, taken at a Paris meeting between FFF president Jean-Pierre Escalettes and several council members, means the 56-year-old Domenech gets a chance to lead Les Bleus to the 2010 World Cup.

The FFF president said he did not want to make a rash decision based on the public outcry that followed Euro 2008.

"Domenech's record is not that bad as coach," he said. "It is not catastrophic. He qualified us two straight times for a major competition," the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008.

"I did not want emotion and passion to get the better of reason," Escalettes said.

Escalettes said the council members voted 18-0 in favor of keeping Domenech, with one abstention. However, he suggested that Domenech may stand down if France does not get a good start to its 2010 qualifying campaign.

"He is the first to be self-critical," Escalettes said. "Everyone is fully aware that the French team must evolve. We will see where things are in mid-October. But we have not asked him to sign a contract. It is a moral contract."

He also insisted that Domenech must improve his current communication strategy, criticizing the coach for remarks that were "sometimes like pouring vinegar on a wound."

"That has to change to reconcile him with the French fans," the federation president said.

Domenech's team flopped dismally at Euro 2008 last month, where it was among the favorites just two years after reaching the World Cup final.

But two-time European champion France failed to win a match and scored only one goal, in a 1-4 loss to the Netherlands.

The French also drew 0-0 with Romania before losing 0-2 to an unimpressive Italy team.

"No more France-Romania's," Escalettes said, urging Les Bleus to start playing attractive football again.

French football league president Frederic Thiriez said the fans were let down at last month's tournament.

"We apologize to the fans of the French team, but the failure was collective and everyone must take their part of the blame," Thiriez said. "I back the decision taken by the president. When you are in trouble the only answer is solidarity."

Former France captain Didier Deschamps had been among the candidates to replace Domenech, who now has a first World Cup qualifying match at home against Serbia on September 10.

Domenech was reproached for the brittle way in which he answered questions, for alienating French players from the fans by having too many closed-door training sessions and for proposing marriage to his girlfriend, Estelle Denis, live on television just moments after the French were eliminated.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily July 4, 2008)