Paris (AFP)

The Covid threat hangs over Ligue 1 again: Friday followed the postponement of the Lorient-Dijon match, the uncertainty around Strasbourg-Saint-Étienne and the announcement of the positive control of Paris SG coach Mauricio Pochettino .

Shaken by the TV rights crisis, the L1 is also disrupted by the pandemic.

Crucial match for the maintenance, Lorient-Dijon will not be able to play Sunday (3:00 p.m.) as planned, because twelve players of the Breton club are positive in the RT-PCR test, including eleven of the thirty members of the professional group.

"After the opinion of the national Covid commission" of the French Football Federation (FFF), the competitions commission of the Professional Football League (LFP) "decided to postpone the match," explained the LFP.

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.

On Thursday, a twelfth player from the Lorient team had tested positive for Covid-19.

The club also announced the closure for at least 10 days of its training center after the discovery of four cases of Covid-19 among young people and management, as Le Havre, Marseille, Nice and even others had to do this fall. Brest.

And the contagion could spread: a case of Covid-19 was also detected at the Nantes training center among young people who participated in a friendly match against their Lorient counterparts.

- Strasbourg-Saint-Étienne suspended -

Ligue 1 is therefore deprived this weekend of a real duel 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.

Lorient-Dijon is the first match postponed due to the pandemic since Marseille-Nice on the 11th day, a decision dating from November 17.

Coincidentally, this OM-OGCN has just been rescheduled Friday to February 17 at 9 p.m., announced the LFP.

The show, which is still wondering which broadcaster will offer it on screens from February, also risks being cut off this weekend from another meeting.

Indeed, Strasbourg-Saint-Étienne, also scheduled for Sunday 3:00 p.m., finds itself under the threat of the Coronavirus.

Several players and members of the management of AS Saint-Étienne have tested positive, warned ASSE on Friday.

"The PCR tests carried out on Tuesday and last Thursday revealed many positive cases for Covid-19 among the players and members of the management of the professional group" explained the Forézien club in a press release.

- Pochettino in solitary confinement -

"The people concerned have been placed in solitary confinement and new examinations will be carried out this Saturday before the team's trip to Strasbourg in order to confirm the maintenance of its Ligue 1 match", continues ASSE.

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.

On the Paris SG side, if Mauricio Pochettino's positive test does not endanger the trip to Angers scheduled for Saturday (9 p.m.), Ligue 1 temporarily loses one of its main players, a brand new star, in addition, the Argentinian technician having arrived at his post on January 3.

The Parisian coach "is confirmed positive in the Sars-Cov2 PCR test", said PSG.

"It is subject to the appropriate sanitary protocol" and must "respect isolation".

His assistants Jesus Perez and Miguel D'Agostino will lead the team in Maine-et-Loire, PSG said on his Twitter account.

Pochettino led three matches on the Paris bench, notably winning the Champions Trophy against Marseille (2-1), Wednesday in Lens.

Three players from the Parisian workforce were already affected by the pandemic and absent from the group party to face the SCO of Angers.

They are the Brazilian Rafinha, the German Thilo Kehrer and the international Espoirs Colin Dagba.

The Covid has probably not finished hitting L1.

Nor the L2: Friday, Châteauroux announced seven new cases of Covid-19 among the players and the management, on the eve of a trip to Auxerre on Saturday.

© 2021 AFP