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The French Government has announced this Tuesday that there will be no sporting events in the country until at least September 1. Not even behind closed doors . The most direct consequence of this decision, announced by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe before the National Assembly, is that the soccer league, Ligue 1, is canceled, both in the first and second divisions.

Ligue 1 had drawn up a plan to resume the competition in mid-June and play the remaining 11 games (12 in the case of PSG and Strasbourg) before August, following UEFA guidelines for national competitions to end during the July. The government's decision, however, blows up this plan.

"The 2019-20 season will not be able to resume," explained Philippe, who in this way has ended the soccer league and also the Top14 of rugby . Furthermore, this decision will have a direct impact on the Tour de France, which was scheduled to start on August 29 and, at best, will have to delay its Grand Départ by at least three days. The option to run the Dauphiné in August is also ruled out after this decision by the French authorities.

The French is the second soccer league definitively canceled in Europe after the Dutch, also after the decision of its government to prohibit the celebration of matches before September 1. Other countries such as Scotland and Belgium are expected to make the same decision in the coming days. On the contrary, the German Bundesliga maintains its plans to resume the competition during the month of May. The other three major European leagues, LaLiga, Premier League and Serie A, also hope to be able to play during the summer and without an audience all the remaining days.

The French government's decision is also a serious blow to UEFA , whose (rather optimistic) plan to hold the final rounds of the Champions League and Europa League in August is now highly questionable. PSG are already in the quarterfinals of the European Cup and Olympique Lyon have an advantage against Juventus (1-0) in their unfinished crossing of the second round. Neither of them could play in their stadiums those games.

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  • Ligue 1
  • Europe
  • Belgium
  • sports
  • Coronavirus

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