Paris (AFP)
The Lorient-Dijon match counting for the 20th in Ligue 1, scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed because more than ten players from the Breton club are affected by Covid-19, the Professional Football League (LFP) announced on Friday.
This is the first match postponed due to the pandemic since the Marseille-Nice of the 11th day, decision dating from November 17.
Lorient-Dijon is a crucial match for the maintenance.
The DCFO is 18th and jump-off before the 20th day, and the FCL 19th and first relegation, two lengths behind the Burgundians.
"After the opinion of the National Covid Commission" of the French Football Federation (FFF), the LFP Competitions Commission "decided to postpone the match" after noting "the certain absence of more than ten players on the list of thirty FC Lorient players due to positive RT-PCR tests ".
In accordance with the medical protocol decreed at the beginning of September by the League, the postponement of a meeting is considered if one of the two teams cannot present at least twenty players tested negative on an initial list of thirty.
A twelfth player from the Lorient team had tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.
On Thursday, January 7, four players from the "tango" club had tested positive and placed in solitary confinement for checks before the match the following Saturday in Bordeaux, where FCL lost 2-1.
Negative confirmation tests finally allowed two of these players to return to the squad in time for the match.
However, tests carried out every day since have revealed seven new cases, including two members of the management, Tuesday, then four additional cases Wednesday and finally this new case Thursday.
That is a total of twelve players, including eleven of the thirty members of the professional group.
Lorient also has a suspended player and several injured.
The last professional match postponed in France was Niort-Valenciennes, in Ligue 2, scheduled for December 22.
The match was given lost to the Chamois niortais.
© 2021 AFP