Paris (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron will take the pulse of a French sports world on Tuesday morning that feels neglected and calls for an emergency plan not to sink in the coming months.

The first spring confinement had frozen all of France, including stadiums to the chagrin of French football, the second left professionals treading the lawns and floors but without spectators, and therefore without revenue, foreshadowing difficult months.

For ten days, it is Tony Parker, quadruple NBA champion and president of Asvel, who went on the attack on all airwaves, warning that without help, basketball was going to die a beautiful death.

No doubt responding to these concerns, the executive decided to receive on Tuesday morning a sample of representatives of amateur and professional sport, operators of sports halls, and champions like Sarah Ourahmoune (boxing), Gwaldys Epangue (taikwondo ) and pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie.

The President of the Republic, surrounded by Prime Minister Jean Castex, Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu, Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire in particular will meet by videoconference.

They will thus "address the effects of the health crisis on sport", "work on new measures to support the sector" and "ensure the place that physical and sporting practice must occupy in our society", indicated the 'Elysium.

On the eve of this meeting, the basketball, handball, volleyball and ice hockey leagues were still taking their pen.

"Many clubs will not recover from this new test without - at the same time - the support of their private and public partners, without the solidarity of the fans who follow them, without the help of the public authorities", they launch together Monday evening.

Indeed, all sports whose economy is based more on ticketing than TV rights, are worried.

This is also the case for rugby, whose federation will also be received on Tuesday.

- Emergency plan ?

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Between the closure of sports halls, the imposed closed doors which leaves the cash drawers hopelessly empty, and the decline in memberships in amateur clubs, French sport is struggling.

He received 120 million euros at the time of the overall recovery plan for the French economy in September.

All parts of the sector are now calling for an emergency plan.

Since that date, the Ministry of Sport has been working on a measure to compensate for ticket office losses.

Some 107 million euros are "sanctuarized" but the release of this sum is subject to its compatibility with European rules.

A matter of days, we assure the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu, who is also pushing in favor of exemptions from specific contributions to sport.

In total, with partial unemployment measures, solidarity funds, etc., sport has received 4 billion euros in aid since the start of the crisis, the ministry calculated.

Concerning amateur sport, concern remains great.

On October 26, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNSOF) and 95 sports federations had deplored, in an open letter to Emmanuel Macron, not being among the "priorities" in the management of the coronavirus crisis and denounced "a stigmatization as violent as it is unfounded ".

The latest figures reported to the CNOSF, out of 44,000 clubs surveyed of its 160,000 associates (out of approximately 300,000 clubs identified in France), show a drop in membership of around 20%.

And a whole part of the sport, animated by volunteers, "passes under the radars of Bercy", slips in passing Denis Masseglia, president of the Olympic Committee.

"We may not cry loud enough. We will not wear a yellow vest and we will not take to the streets with signs," he had recently launched in front of senators.

And to warn, however: "On the other hand, in all the clubs, there are many citizens who want their role to be recognized. From the moment it is not recognized, we make them people who are a little in revolt against the system, "he said.

"I'm telling you, because it rises from the base," he added.

© 2020 AFP