This is undoubtedly one of the main victims of the premature cessation of Ligue 1. The club of Amiens, relegated administratively to Ligue 2 after the formalization of the end of the season due to the Covid-19 pandemic ensures that they want to fight to the end and sell their skin dearly.
Nineteenth and penultimate of Ligue 1 at the time of the decision of the League (LFP) to freeze the classification ten days before the end, the Picardy team was relegated to the green carpet, in the same way as Toulouse (20th ), without being able to defend his chances of maintenance on the ground. Hence the mobilization of the club and local politicians in the face of a decision deemed "unfair".
Bernard Joannin 🎙️: "Justice will
prove us right" 📝👉: https://t.co/u9LBZPKunT pic.twitter.com/tI1vGDMgGD
"We are forced to fight, to go to court against this unfair decision. I think it is time that humanism and justice prevail over all other interests", attacked the Amiens president, Bernard Joannin, Tuesday May 15, during a press conference organized at the Unicorn stadium.
Over a quarter of a season to play
Present at his side, the lawyer for the CSA detailed the club's legal battle plan. "Two applications, one on the merits and one in summary proceedings, were filed yesterday (Monday) at the Paris administrative court," announced Mr. Christophe Bertrand.
"Can there be relegations when the competition is not over? There was 26% of the season left to play, it's like stopping a match in the 66th minute ... Is it fair and well-founded to declare a losing team before the match ends? The legal answer is no, "said the board.
The Amiens SC, which was experiencing its third consecutive season in the elite, was certainly poorly ranked at the time of the interruption of the championship in mid-March. The Picard club had 23 points, four less than Nîmes (18th, 27 pts) with 30 points remaining to be distributed if the ten remaining days could have been contested.
A Ligue 1 with 22 clubs?
"This decision was taken in a rush, without any real concertation. Look at the other sports: rugby, handball, basketball, they did not relegate," insisted Mr. Joannin, pleading for "alternatives" .
One of them would be a Ligue 1 with 22 clubs next year, including the first two from Ligue 2 (Lorient and Lens), authorized to go up, and drafting the last two from Ligue 1.
Amiens, who launched a petition signed by nearly 18,000 people, has received significant support in French football, such as Laurent Blanc, Gérard Houllier, Jean-Michel Larqué, Antoine Kombouaré or Luis Fernandez.
"If our fight was not fair, these supporters would not have come," said the President of Amiens.
The urban community of Amiens has also announced that it will join the legal battle.
Sports and economic damage
"We have called on a law firm which is empowered to plead before the Council of State. I must speak to them," Alain Gest, president of Amiens Métropole, told AFP. "It does not yet prejudge what we are going to choose, to go either before the Council of State or before the administrative court."
For the moment, the CSA does not intend to request financial compensation, but simply to have its relegation canceled.
"Football is not a question of money for us," said Joannin, who nevertheless figures from "40 to 50 million euros" the damage caused by this demotion.
And the Amiens players, in all this? How do they live this uncertain situation? "After the shock of the decision, there was uncertainty and fear. They are the ones who are most affected and touched in emotional terms," said CSA coach Luka Elsner.
"No player has asked to leave. We are going to fight until the last day, on a field which is the court," hammered the sports director, John Williams. As long as the Amenian soldier is not dead , no one is going to dance on our grave. "
With AFP
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