The French federation of pétanques and Provencal games is not the best known of the federations and yet it can boast of having many practitioners, professional or not, as its president Joseph Cantarelli reminds at the microphone of Europe 1: " It is 300,000 licensees, 6000 clubs, 400 petanque schools, it is a large non-Olympic federation, and above all we have many practitioners, around 5 million, in leisure, with balls in the trunk of their car. "
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Question mark on the holding of "La Marseillaise"
With the Coronavirus crisis, the discipline is also subject to confinement and a temporary stop, at least until July 15, especially since it is considered ... as a collective sport! "Petanque is considered a contact sport", smiles the president of the federation. "So, yes the contact is less than in judo or karate. We are in close presence, so we will have to pay attention to the distances between people, but we can practice individually. No triplets therefore, which is, however, the basis of our practice. " Joseph Cantarelli has just finalized his plan to resume activities, and awaits the return of the Ministry of Sports: "The priority is recovery in clubs obviously, it can only be done with restrictions and measures quite restrictive regarding health. With also limits on the number of people. We are waiting for the green light to be able to communicate. "
It remains to be seen whether the big event of the year, the Marseillaise, which in principle attracts 150,000 spectators, can take place. The competition was postponed to the end of August, but the Prime Minister announced the ban on major sporting events involving more than 5,000 people until September. This concerns football, rugby, but also pétanque. "The question mark comes from the calendar announced by the government, which must be specified. There are 12,000 players plus the public, we are right in the big events," recalls Joseph Cantarelli. He should know more on May 7, the government will indeed clarify this date of May 11, whether it will be maintained or not. A guide to authorized sports and how to practice them is being developed. What is certain is that sports activities which do not allow the famous social distancing (collective sports, combat sports) will not be able to resume immediately. It remains to be seen whether the pétanque will enter this box or not…