Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol has courted controversy by labelling African players as "cheap" as he declared that the scheduling of the Africa Cup of Nations puts him off signing players from the continent.

Sagnol, the former Monaco, Bayern Munich and France full-back who took over as coach of Bordeaux in the summer, also indicated that African players lack "intelligence" and "discipline" in an interview with the Bordeaux newspaper Sud-Ouest.

"We deal with it one game at a time, but yes it's a problem," said Sagnol when asked how he would deal with losing players to Cup of Nations duty early in the new year.

"As long as I remain coach of Bordeaux there will be far fewer African players coming to Girondins de Bordeaux, because I don't fancy seeing 12 players clearing off for two months every two years."

Sagnol, a former France international who won 58 caps and was an integral part of the side that reached the 2006 World Cup final, then gave a rather blunt assessment of the qualities of the "typical African player".

"These are criteria to take into account when it comes to signing players," said the 37-year-old, who also won the 2001 Champions League trophy with German side Bayern Munich.

"The advantage of what I would call the typical African player is that they are cheap, ready to fight, always what you would call powerful on the pitch.

"But football is not just about that, it is about technique, intelligence, discipline, so you need everything.

"The Nordics as well, the Nordics are good. They have a good mentality. A football team is a mixture, it's like life, it's like France. You have defenders, attackers, midfielders, fast ones, big ones, small ones and technical ones."

Bordeaux have several African stars in their squad, including captain Lamine Sane of Senegal, Gabon midfielder Andre Biyogo Poko, Tunisia winger Wahbi Khazri and Mali duo Cheick Diabate and Abdou Traore.

The Africa Cup of Nations, held every two years, is set to be held in Morocco between January 17 and February 8.