by Isi Esene

Former French captain, Didier Deschamps, has been lined-up to take over as manager of the France national team.

The French Football Federation (FFF) confirmed that their president, Noel Le Graet, had met Deschamps to discuss terms of a deal to replace Laurent Blanc.

Talks between Deschamps and FFF officials started after Laurent Blanc decided to step down from the post following two years in charge of the team.

Should he get appointed, his first match would come against Copa America champions Uruguay on August 15 at Le Havre. France then start their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign on September 7 against Finland in a group which also contains their Euro 2012 nemesis, Spain.

Blanc stepped down after an unsuccessful campaign for honours at the Euro 2012 where they were ousted by Spain at quarter-final stage of the competition.

Spain went on to win the tournament.

Just like the 2010 World Cup, the France Euro 2012 campaign was fraught with internal wrangling off the field which observers believed affected their performance on it.

L’Equipe sports daily and French radio reported that the former Marseille boss would be handed a two year contract with an extra two years should France qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

He could be without a number of his star names before then though as the FFF continue to probe the problems which undermined their Euro 2012 campaign.

The governing body recently initiated disciplinary proceedings against four members of the team – Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa, Jeremy Menez and Yann M’Vila.

Manchester City midfielder Nasri fell foul of the FFF following his heated argument with a journalist, while Ben Arfa, of Newcastle, was allegedly embroiled in a dressing-room bust-up.

On his part, PSG midfielder, Menez, is to be investigated after allegedly gesturing at goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. M’Vila, a Rennes player, also irked the Federation when he ignored Blanc after being substituted in their match against Spain.

At the 2010 World Cup, Nicholas Anelka, Patrice Evra, Franck Ribery and Jeremy Toulalan were hit with bans of varying lengths by the FFF after refusing to come out for training.