France coach Laurent Blanc last night expressed his dismay that the new multi-million euro France kit unveiled last evening makes Les Bleus look too much like their Italian rivals. "I find that the completely blue jersey is beautiful but a bit Italian," said Blanc after the new kit was unveiled in Paris.

"We know that the French are very attached to the blue-white-red. I made this remark but there's a clever thing on the sleeve that you can lift up and that's red inside.

"Afterwards it's a question of consistency and uniformity. It will be up to the players to decide if we lift up the sleeves or not.

"In any case when we play in blue we'll have white shorts and red socks so the blue-white-red will be visible."