Paris (AFP)

At the end, the Council of State decides. Lyon, Amiens and Toulouse are looking for a victory on the judicial field Thursday before the supreme administrative court, faced with the decision to stop Ligue 1 and to freeze its classification, which they contest.

It is the last day of the season: not the football season, but the resort season, which enliven the sports calendar in the absence of competition since the beginning of March.

The three clubs are expected for a hearing at 2 p.m. 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 OL (7th) from European places and sent the ASC (19th) and TFC (20th) to Ligue 2. The three teams, the big losers in this calculation method, promised to make their voices heard. voice in justice.

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.

- Lyon for the 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 season + 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 Aulas.

The powerful leader, who challenges a hasty "hasty" and "against the tide" while the other major European championships resume, has again moved his pawns in this direction, by seizing the League so that it reassesses its 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 resume, says his Nantes counterpart Waldemar Kita, stressing, in particular, the absence of broadcasters.

- "Values" -

Unlike 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 games.

"Justice is the only bulwark against the decision of the League to arbitrarily relegate Amiens SC. The only thing that matters to us today is to win the sport and its values," said the president. from the Bernard Joannin Picard Club.

"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 keep the principle of ascents and descents in all championships, which could well be collapse.

The appeal brought by about thirty amateur clubs, against the final classification procedures, will also follow: the hearing for interim measures at the Council of State is scheduled for Monday, according to the applicants' lawyer. New episode of a season approaching the end.

© 2020 AFP