Warren Gatland will not be taking over as coach of France after the World Cup.
French rugby clubs have rejected the idea of having a foreign coach for the national team, following a referendum.
Wales boss Gatland had been touted as a prime target for the French rugby federation (FFR) as they look to turn around the fortunes of Les Bleus.
Current France coach Jacques Brunel will step down following the World Cup and Gatland will be available after that tournament, which will bring down the curtain on his 11 years at the helm of the Welsh team.
But the triple Grand Slam-winning New Zealander won’t be heading across the channel to replace Brunel, with French clubs vetoing a foreign coach.
Some 900 of the 1,742 amateur clubs in France took part in the ballot and 59 per cent voted against the proposal.
“I will respect this choice,” said Federation head Bernard Laporte, who has made handing power back to the clubs a central plank of his bid for re-election as FFR chief in 2020.
Laporte had opened the debate in the wake of France finishing a disappointing fourth in this season’s Six Nations, saying he had not ruled out appointing a first-ever foreign coach to replace the 65-year-old Brunel.
He did not name any candidates, but said he had “gone to meet the five best coaches in the world to offer them the job”.
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That led to speculation about the likes of Gatland, Ireland’s Kiwi coach Joe Schmidt and England’s Australian boss Eddie Jones being in the frame.
But all of those have now effectively been ruled out.
The result of the club’s referendum caps a traumatic week for the FFR, which was ordered by an industrial tribunal on Monday to pay one million euros in compensation to sacked former national coach Guy Noves.
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Noves became the first France coach ever to be fired, in December 2017, after just seven wins from 22 matches. He was replaced by former Italy coach Brunel in time for the 2018 Six Nations.
But Brunel has failed to turn France’s fortunes around, with just five victories from 16 games.
As for Gatland, he has also been hailed as a potential successor to Eddie Jones with England.
