The epidemic situation in Great Britain, with in particular the predominance of a variant of the more contagious coronavirus, threatens the good performance of the Six-Nations Tournament, which is due to start on February 6.

The government must decide shortly if it lets the XV of France participate.

This is probably not a priority for the government in view of the current period, but we will have to decide!

The thorny case of the Six Nations Tournament will be discussed in the defense council on Wednesday morning, less than two weeks before the start of the competition.

With a very simple question: should we allow the XV of France to play the Tournament, while the English variant of the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in Great Britain.

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After a first match in Italy on February 6, France must go to Ireland in mid-February.

She is supposed to move to England in mid-March and receive Wales a little later.

All this hardly reassures the Ministry of Sport, because in these nations, the English variant circulates a lot.

Economic and sporting consequences

And the fear is that the XV of France will become a kind of gateway, a Trojan horse that would allow the English variant to develop even faster in France.

But obviously, prohibiting the Blues from traveling or refusing to welcome their opponents would have terrible consequences for rugby, primarily economic.

The French Rugby Federation would thus deprive itself of the 17 million euros in participation bonuses in the Tournament.

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A ban would also have consequences for sport in general.

From the moment when the Blues are forbidden to go and play in Italy or England, it is difficult to allow, for example, a football club like PSG to play the European Cup in Barcelona, ​​like this 'is scheduled for mid-February.

So the trend is still to let the Blues start the Tournament in Italy and then advise depending on the state of the epidemic.