Paris (AFP)
Final stages in July? Or in August, just before the start of next season, and thus avoid ending the current season? Club presidents and LNR are working on different scenarios to save the Top 14.
During his televised address on Monday, President Emmanuel Macron placed May 11 as the starting point for the deconfinement, thus paving the way for a continuation of the championship, which has been stopped since March 13.
Meeting on Wednesday morning, the scenario analysis and resumption of competitions working group (including the clubs of Lyon, Toulon, Montpellier, Castres or Agen ...) will try to build scenarios before the meeting (by videoconference) of all the Presidents of Pro D2 and Top 14 in the evening.
. The optimistic scenario: a final on July 18
This is the scenario favored by Paul Goze, the president of the LNR. Initially scheduled for June 26, the final could be played on July 18, which corresponds to the deadline announced by Emmanuel Macron for the ban on "gatherings with large audiences" (mid-July).
With this in mind, a final phase could therefore be organized from mid-June to early July behind closed doors. But then difficult to imagine the supporters rushing to fill the Stade de France and its 80,000 seats while the threat of coronavirus should still be present.
An option also complex, especially on the organizational side. Especially since the players will need "a recovery window to get back to level", summarizes Mike Prendergast, the attacking coach of Racing 92.
"The coaches and physical trainers have reaffirmed that, after a time out, there is a minimum to allow the players to regain some semblance of form. This time is four weeks with a match at the end. is the minimum, "echoed Robins Tchale-Watchou, president of the Provale players' union.
. The realistic scenario: no camera in August
Unthinkable weather, the solution of August seems to be popular lately and Paul Goze himself would have reviewed his position. As a result, some Top 14 clubs are already leaning to end the 2019-2020 season just before starting the next one, which should start on the weekend of September 4, 5 and 6.
"Perhaps we must push the end of the Top 14 even further," said Bordeaux-Bègles president Laurent Marti in an interview with AFP.
"We have to see if we manage to postpone final stages later in the summer before the start of the 2020-21 season to still finish this season, so special and necessarily incomplete, and have a 2020 champion and the feast of its supporters that goes with it, "chained the president of Lyon, Yann Roubert, on RMC.
Because one thing is certain, the thirty presidents of Top 14 and Pro D2 want to go to the end of the season.
. The pessimistic scenario: terminus!
Truncated, shifted, the current season is increasingly hypothetical. So why not just stop? A worst-case scenario, refused as a whole by the presidents of the thirty French professional clubs. On April 1, the clubs of Top 14 and Pro D2 voted in favor of the continuation of the exercise.
Except that if the steering committee remains the decision maker, as Paul Goze recalls, all options could be rejected by the government, if the health crisis did not allow a return to normal.
© 2020 AFP