Season ended for collective professional sports in France

The Nigerian Victor Oshimen during Lille-RC Strasbourg on September 25, 2019. REUTERS / Pascal Rossignol

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During the presentation of the French government's deconfinement plan before the National Assembly, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced on Tuesday April 28 that the 2019-2020 professional sports season will not resume.

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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, "the 2019-2020 season of professional sports, especially football, will not be able to resume" in France, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe told the National Assembly on April 28.

No big event before September

A decision that had already been taken by the French Volleyball Federation last March. The National Handball League also made the same decision.

The head of the French government also indicated that "major sporting events (...), all events which bring together more than 5000 participants and are therefore the subject of a declaration in the prefecture and must be organized for a long time at the 'advance, cannot be held before September' . The European Athletics Championships in August had already been canceled.

In football, the hypothesis favored by the Professional Football League (LFP), namely to resume Ligue 1 on June 17 in camera, and finish it on July 25, seems very compromised after the Prime Minister's announcements.

What about the Champions League?

UEFA's decision to postpone Euro 2020 to the summer of 2021 had opened up new possibilities for the calendar for the soccer championships to end, once the health risks linked to the coronavirus pandemic that put the football stopped at the end of March. Now the question arises of the continuation of the Champions League and the Europa League.

These announcements also leave pending the completion of the 2019-2020 Top 14 rugby season scheduled for the end of the summer, and the holding of the Tour de France, rescheduled from August 29 to September 20.

For cyclists, confined like other sportsmen since March 17, the Prime Minister's announcements pave the way for the resumption of individual road training as of May 11.

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