Paris (AFP)

Professional football clubs, in favor of a "modification" of the medical protocol, hope to see Ligue 1 matches maintained "as long as 20 players" from each team "are negative" for Covid-19, Didier Quillot, the director, said on Wednesday executive general of the League.

A Professional Football League (LFP) Board of Directors on Wednesday "adopted the principle (...) of a rule that says as long as 20 players in the squad are negative, then the match can be maintained, "Didier Quillot told AFP.

While the medical protocol currently in force calls into question the holding of a match from four cases of Covid-19 contamination in a team, the clubs are indeed hoping for an easing from the authorities.

Meeting in a "working group + Covid + created this week" and bringing together in particular doctors from clubs including those of Paris SG and Lyon, they "recommended to the Board of Directors this rule of 20 players in the workforce", detailed Didier Quillot.

Concretely, this rule would imply the maintenance of the matches as long as 20 players, starting from a preliminary list of 30 players by team, are negative, he again indicated, explaining to be "in daily contact with the public authorities" for move forward on the subject, without however indicating a timetable for the possible implementation of this relaxation.

The League wishes to see a "principle of subsidiarity" applied: the government would have the competence of "the management of positive cases and the training of contact cases", the League that of "defining the conditions under which a match can be postponed ", as a competition organizer.

- 50 cases since July 31 -

The clubs want to come closer to the model put in place this summer by UEFA for its competitions: this allows matches to be held as long as 13 players including a goalkeeper are negative.

By way of comparison, the protocol of the National Rugby League for the resumption of the Top 14 is stricter: a meeting is called into question based on three positive cases in the same professional group in the three days preceding a match.

"The objective is clear, shared by all, we must play the matches, play all the matches," insisted Didier Quillot, while a meeting (Marseille / Saint-Etienne) has for the moment been postponed and Paris SG saw three of his players (Neymar, Di Maria, Paredes) test positive.

In all, "50 positive cases" (players and management) have been declared to the League since July 31, said Mr. Quillot.

In the Board of Directors on Wednesday, the League also addressed the issue of the 5,000-person gauge in stadiums, while three Top 14 teams have obtained a prefectural exemption to exceed this gauge in their next matches.

"We consider that football and rugby have the same problematic and the same know-how in terms of reception of the public, almost identical protocols and we therefore hope that the prefects give us exemptions", launched Didier Quillot.

The executive director general of the LFP also indicated that he had written to the President of the Republic and to the Prime Minister "to ask for financial compensation" relating to the maintenance of this gauge.

Compensation estimated by the daily L'Equipe at more than 100 million euros.

© 2020 AFP