Coronavirus invites itself to the Lyon-Juventus field in the Champions League

Text by: RFI Follow

The spread of the coronavirus in Italy will not prevent the coming this Wednesday, February 26, to Lyon of Juventus supporters from Turin during the round of 16 first leg of the Football Champions League. A match maintained despite the arrival in Lyon of nearly 3,000 Italian supporters. No restrictive measures were taken for this match. A situation that prompted French elected officials to react.

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This may seem paradoxical given the rapid development of the health situation in Italy and some cases of contamination in Piedmont, but this region of Turin is not the most affected by the epidemic. Neither the prefecture of the Rhône nor the Ministry of the Interior have taken the decision to publish decrees prohibiting supporters of Juventus from coming to France.

Lyon mayors rebel

The rare tifosi who arrived in Lyon on Tuesday were not even checked at the border. In the capital of the Gauls, the concern born of confinement Monday for a few hours at the Perrache bus station of a coach, departing from Siena and passing through Milan, quickly disappeared, reports our special envoy to Lyon, Christophe Diremzian .

This free movement of Juventus supporters is however not to the taste of two mayors of the Lyon conurbation, that of Décines, the town where the OL stadium is located, of Laurence Fautra, and that of Meyzieu, the neighboring locality, Christophe Quiniou. Both were against. They believe that the precautionary principle should prevail.

Ségolène Royal: " We don't understand ... "

The fact remains that Ségolène Royal estimated Wednesday that the authorization given to the supporters of Juventus to make the trip to Lyon " seems incoherent " and that " opinion does not understand " this decision in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

" We do not understand, for example, why some students who return from trips are put in" fourteen ", are sidelined, and why we bring supporters for the match, " said on France 2 the old 2007 presidential candidate.

" The same instructions are given on both sides of the border between France and Italy ", assured for his part Aurore Bergé, MP and spokesperson for LREM on RFI. “ Similarly, people who are Italian are told, depending on the symptoms, not to travel or even to stay in isolation. [...] There is no reason that the people are less reasonable and that the instructions are given less "in Italy, she added.

The guest #RFIMatin of @FredRiviereRFI

. @ auroreberge porte-parole @enmarchefr "The same instructions are given on both sides of the border with # Italy. We are in the #EU, in countries that are ready. There is no reason to panic. ” #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/UB5yJzYYR8

Juventus coach, supporters' lawyer

In Italy, allowing the Tifosi to go to Lyon is an exception to the rule , underlines our correspondent in Rome , Anne le Nir, since the government has taken draconian precautionary measures, especially in the northern regions which are the most affected. The matches are postponed to a later date or will be played in camera. Tuesday, neither the French Minister of Health Olivier Véran, who was in Rome for a meeting at European level, nor his Italian counterpart, did not wish to speak on this exception.

In the Italian press, all the daily newspapers quote only the coach of Juventus, Maurizio Sarri, who declared: " The virus is a European problem and not only Italian. In France, only 300 swab tests were carried out while in Italy we made 3,500. Our supporters have the right to attend the match. The Juventus manager added with a small spike, estimating that in France, there would perhaps be as many cases of contamination if there had been so many tests.

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• coronavirus
• Soccer
• UEFA Champions League
• Italy

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