All Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches scheduled by April 15 will be "behind closed doors", the Professional Football League (LFP) announced on Tuesday after government measures taken to deal with the spread of the epidemic of coronavirus. The LFP said in a statement that the modalities of the matches behind closed doors will be defined at the meeting of its office Wednesday.
Within this one month period, the "classic" between Marseille, 2nd in L1, and PSG, leader, which is due to take place on Sunday March 22, is particularly concerned.
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Lens-Orléans was played Monday evening behind closed doors
Monday, the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu had said that all football matches by April 15, like any rally in France, should comply with the maximum gauge of 1,000 people, in accordance with the restrictive measures taken by ministerial decree. The minister had assumed that "in camera (could) become our doctrine for organizing competitions and professional sport", while advocating "sports continuity", recommendations followed by the LFP.
As of Monday evening, a first Championship match, Lens-Orléans in Ligue 2, had been disputed without spectators. However, the Ligue 1 meeting between Strasbourg and Paris SG, originally scheduled for Saturday March 7 at 5:30 p.m., had been postponed. Thirty people died, five more than on Monday, and 1,606 in total were contaminated in France by the new coronavirus according to a new report published Tuesday early in the afternoon by the Ministry of Health.