Paris (AFP)
"The 2019-2020 professional sports season will not be able to resume": by excluding any restart before August, the French government forced football and rugby on Tuesday to accept the evidence of a historic end to their seasons.
Exposing his deconfinement plan, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe whistled the end of the game for professional competitions (L1, L2, Top 14, Pro D2) suspended since mid-March because of the coronavirus. Football and rugby joined basketball, handball and volleyball, which had already marked the definitive end of their season in circumstances never before seen in French sport since the Second World War.
"The major sporting events (...), all the events which gather more than 5000 participants (...) cannot be held before September", declared the Prime Minister to the deputies.
The Ministry of Sports then told AFP that there could not be a competition "even behind closed doors" before the end of July, leaving open the possibility of holding certain matches in August. This could allow Lyon and Paris SG to finish their course in the Champions League in August, a hypothesis favored by UEFA, the Parisian club even considering playing its quarter-final abroad if the sanitary situation forced it .
In the meantime, the horizon has suddenly been blocked for football, a sport-king in the country of world champions.
The President of the French Federation (FFF) Noël Le Graët has also taken note of the government opinion by declaring to the Breton daily newspaper Le Télégramme that Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 were "definitively stopped for the 2019-2020 season", pending the final decision of the Professional Football League (LFP), which must meet its office Thursday and its general assembly in mid-May. The National 1 (3rd division) and the 1st female division, pending until then, also end.
- "A disaster area" -
The hypothesis favored by the Professional Football League (LFP), namely to resume Ligue 1 on June 17 in camera, and finish it on July 25, is therefore obsolete, generating immense financial uncertainty for a sector very dependent on its TV rights.
For now, we will have to decide the issue of the title of champion (PSG occupied the first place before the suspension), that of European places and possible relegations.
And economic stability will be put to the test: "What about club finances? Six months without revenue, how do we do it? Like tourism or air travel we are a disaster sector, it's official now," summed up the president of a Ligue 1 club with AFP, very worried.
According to an estimate by the Ministry of Sports, the losses for the six major professional sports (football, rugby, cycling, handball, volleyball, basketball) amount to 1.45 billion euros in the event that the championships are not resumed. Including 1.16 billion euros for professional football alone (L1 and L2 clubs).
But for Sylvain Kastendeuch, co-president of the football union UNFP, it is a "responsible" decision. "The government has understood that the economic emergency should not take precedence over the public health imperative," he reacted.
- September, new course in rugby and cycling -
Regarding rugby, the decision clarifies the situation: the League, which had already validated the solution of a recovery in September, has almost marked the end of the 2019-2020 season.
The meeting of the thirty presidents of Top 14 and Pro D2 on Wednesday is only advisory and that of the steering committee, whose date has not yet been specified, should formalize the abandonment of the final stages, synonymous with the end of the season.
"The clubs are going to be alive for the next four months: we haven't had any financial income since March. There are certainly government assistance measures but we still have charges to fall, to begin with by the salaries of the players, the administrative staff ... ", deplored the general manager of the French stadium Thomas Lombard.
It remains to be decided whether Bordeaux-Bègles, the broad leader of the championship (61 points, eight more than the Lyonnais runner-up) on March 13, will be crowned.
The calendar presented by the government nevertheless preserves the hopes of the Tour de France cycling race, rescheduled from August 29 to September 20.
For cycling, the gauge set at a maximum of 5000 people for sporting events mainly affects the Dauphiné and the start of the Tour.
The Dauphiné, the preparatory race for the Tour, must take place in August in the calendar currently being studied by the International Cycling Union (UCI). The Tour is supposed to start on August 29 in Nice, and only the first three stages are concerned by the tonnage of 5,000 people.
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© 2020 AFP