In search of a victory in the judicial field, Thursday June 4, Lyon, Amiens and Toulouse find themselves before the Council of State, supreme administrative court, facing the decision to arrest Ligue 1 and to freeze its classification, which 'they dispute.

The three clubs are expected for a hearing at 2 p.m. Paris time, before the judge in urgent proceedings to discuss this end of the 2019-20 fiscal year and its consequences, which agitates French football so much. The decision of the Council of State is expected in the following days.

At the center of the controversy, the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Professional Football League (LFP) of April 30, which closed the championship due to the coronavirus pandemic, and determined the final classification according to an index performance.

He ejected Olympique Lyonnais (7th) from European places and sent Amiens SC (19th) and Toulouse FC (20th) to Ligue 2. The three teams, the big losers in this calculation method, promised to make their voices heard.

The Administrative Court of Paris rejected on form the first appeal in summary procedure of each applicant, on May 22, considering that the decisions of the LFP could be challenged "only before the Council of State". These are now the three clubs before the highest administrative court.

OL militate to the end for a recovery

For OL President Jean-Michel Aulas, this is a new opportunity to push for the resumption of competition, a scenario that he is the only one to defend publicly.

His club requests the suspension of the CA decision, but also enjoins the LFP to "reconsider the conditions allowing to consider a resumption of competitions in August, or failing this, to pronounce the 2019-2020 white season". This last option, canceling the season and renewing the identical European qualifiers for 2018-2019 (therefore Lyon), had already been brandished in March by Jean-Michel Aulas.

The powerful leader, who challenges a "hasty" and "against the tide" stop, while the other major European championships resume, again moved his pawns in this direction, by seizing the League for it to reassess his position.

For him, the recent announcement by the Prime Minister, who authorized training from June 2, is an additional argument that makes it possible to end the season this summer.

But "today, for organizational questions, it's too hard to start again]", says his Nantes counterpart, Waldemar Kita, notably stressing the absence of broadcasters.

"To win sport and its values"

Unlike in Lyon, Amiens and Toulouse do not contest the stopping of the Championship, but the final classification, which led to their relegation, without having been able to play all the matches.

"Justice is the only bulwark against the League's decision to arbitrarily relegate the CSA. The only thing that matters to us today is to win the sport and its values," said the president of the Picard club Bernard Joannin.

"What is disputed is the change in the rules of the game during competition. According to the texts, relegations are made after the 38th day, and not before. We do not declare a losing team that is led to the 66th minute of the match ", abounds with AFP the lawyer at the Council of State Me Guillaume Tapie, who advises the ASC.

Amiens has also brought a second appeal, on the merits, which must take several months to the Council of State.

The case of the two clubs will also be followed by the teams of the lower divisions. If the Council of State suspends their relegation, it is the whole building built by the president of the Federation (FFF), Noël Le Graët, anxious to preserve the principle of ascents and descents in all championships, which could well s 'shake.

With AFP

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