Amateur clubs, injured by the end of the championships, set off on a crusade

• The FFF announced the end of the amateur championships last week.
• Certain clubs feel aggrieved by certain criteria fixed by the FFF to decide between the teams concerned by a relegation or a promotion.
• The Federation expects many remedies.

Two rooms, two atmospheres. While football pro is trying to save the head of the current season, the FFF cut that of the amateur championships last week. The Executive Committee (Comex) of April 16, 2020 made the decision to stop "the Leagues and Districts competitions and the national competitions (except National 1 and D1 women, Coupe de France and Coupe de France Féminine) on the date of 13 March ”while taking care to draw up a certain number of exceptional additional measures to decide between clubs aspiring to promotion or dreading relegation. Detail that is important: the FFF has limited the inter-division ascent and descent to one, except for the N2 and N3 who keep their system to three promoted and as many relegated.

If the Fed specifies that the final classifications will be stopped only after examination of the appeals relating to the matches disputed before the suspension of the championships, the club leaders did not waste time to jump on their calculator and spoil themselves on their future. A boon for some, a drama for others. Many of them feel aggrieved, like the Hauts Lyonnais club (National 3): leader of their group with the same number of points and the same goal difference - but more goals scored - than the runner-up Rumilly Vallières. The team will nevertheless be deprived of climbing into N2 because of a curious criterion, that of the number of games played away from home, favorable to its rival (ten against nine for the Hauts Lyonnais). Ulcerated, President Bruno Lacand is indignant and questions himself in a widely shared press release on networks:

“What questions me is that the only possible point to avoid being first is to invent an away game rule which has never been a criterion in the official regulations, the 'incorporate just before the criterion of the best attack ... Why invent this criterion when there are others? "

"I take no pleasure in writing these words, I think that the news should leave football in the background. But faced with such an injustice, I owe it to the name of the club, the volunteers, the coaches ... to answer to this insult. " # TeamHL # SympaLePremierTweet # LaHonte pic.twitter.com/dVopjPRmYi

Another example is that of the AS Saint-Etienne women's team. Second in group B of the second division at the time of stopping the championship, the Stéphanoises have three lengths and one game less than Le Havre, leader and promoted. The two teams have been decided on a quotient basis, and the result is cruel, as Jean-Marc Barsotti, president of the ASSE association explains to us.

“The decision is particularly unfair because our team is deprived of accession for 0.04 point while it is unbeaten, raced from start to finish and even beat the rising club 4-1. We suffered a situation all the more unjust since our last match at Yzeure was postponed for extremely questionable reasons. No rule of sports equity is respected. We will therefore seize the CNOSF of a conciliation request prior to a possible referral to the administrative court. "

The FFF faces a cascade of appeals

We could continue a long time as the list of disappointed is long and the vociferations of many leaders. The latter worry, wonder how they will make their clubs survive, and threaten to leave the ship, when it is not already done, like Denis Maillard, president of Stade Portelois (12th out of 14 of his pool of N3) whose club is condemned to leave the last national level for Regional 1. Open letters are multiplying, legal procedures are being put in place. The Federation already knows that it will collapse under the remedies but does not worry. Legal support in times of crisis exists and since 3F is empowered to take exceptional decisions, it should be covered.

In addition, as revealed by L'Equipe last Thursday, the Sports Ministry is working on a legislative text allowing "to secure the legal principle of changing regulations to award titles, fix the classification methods that have taken or could take the various leagues or federations as part of their internal democracy, and this, retroactively due to current circumstances. "Not impossible, however, we are blown into the headset, that the FFF sticks to the verdict of the conciliator in a case as extreme as that of ASSE if it was proven that sports fairness been flouted and the women's team deserved to be promoted to D1.

To complete the individual steps, the French Amateur Football Association (AFFA) proposes to lead the sling through collective action. Its president and historic opponent of Noël Le Graët, Eric Thomas, explains:

“We were able to negotiate an attractive price with the famous Bertrand firm, we offer reduced prices and effective action. We had about twenty clubs involved in the collective, there may be 30 tomorrow [this Wednesday]. We will stop taking Wednesday to speed up the process [it takes two weeks from the decision of Comex to seize the CNOSF and one month to seize the Council of State]. Just over 3,000 clubs called us to support us. We have received a lot of messages and testimonies. There is a feeling of abandonment, of contempt, the leagues and districts hide, no one answers us. "

Open letter to Roxana Maracineanu and values ​​of ovalism

Faced with this deafening silence but not doomed to last - Le Graët should speak on the issue of amateur football by the weekend - the AFFA sent jointly with AS Saint-Priest (fallen into the red zone after losing his last match and relegated to N3) two open letters to the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu. Eric Thomas also called to solicit parliamentarians to send their demands to the ministry. “Parliamentary territory is our only way out, as are our policies and the Minister of Sports. A first member has just responded favorably. Michel Zumkeller, Member of Parliament for Belfort. He writes, "You can count on me to spread your message." "

Faced with the contemptuous silence of the FFF, 3,000 amateur clubs, including the ASPC, wrote to our Minister of Sports. @FFF @RoxaMaracineanu @Sports_gouv @cnosf_instit https://t.co/HCE2ktEe64

The request is simple. To minimize the losses linked to the coronavirus crisis, the front of the injured clubs wants the descents to be frozen for 2020 and the promotions maintained, by means of the creation of new groups in the national divisions concerned by a surplus of teams in the running. Unreasonable, according to a source close to the Fed, recalling that the number of national clubs has recently been brought to grow under the impetus of the creation of an N3 whose economic and sporting record ("DH level") leaves something to be desired, and things would not get better in the event of traffic jams next year.

Another point of dissatisfaction of the AFFA, the financial participation of the 3F in the war effort, almost vital as the municipal subsidies and the contribution of private sponsors risk melting with the pandemic apocalypse. Eric Thomas does the accounts: “the FFF will send between 12 and 15 million euros to amateur football as part of the crisis while in rugby, the federation will pay 35 million for 1,900 clubs, or twice as much money for eight times fewer clubs. According to our information, the 3F will put in place a specific budget coming from the reserves of the federation, the districts and a certain number of existing aids, whose priority will remain the revival of the football schools. For the National, the lines of the plan remain to be expected because the fate of the first level is intimately linked to those of Ligue 1 and League 2. Two rooms, two atmospheres.

Sport

Coronavirus: French football definitively stops its amateur championships

• Sport
• FFF
• Coronavirus
• Covid 19
• Soccer