- The Professional Football League (LFP) must ratify the decision to stop the L1 and L2 championships on Wednesday because of the Covid-19 epidemic.
- The club of Amiens seized, last week, the justice to contest his relegation in Ligue 2, after this interruption of the season.
- The metropolis of Amiens has just joined the club in this process to denounce the economic damage suffered.
The subject will necessarily be on the agenda. Wednesday is the general meeting of the Professional Football League (LFP) which must ratify the decision to stop the Championships in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, because of the epidemic of Covid-19.
The club of Amiens had seized, last week, the administrative court of Paris to contest his relegation in L2, after this interruption of the 2020-21 season, because of the epidemic of Covid-19. The agglomeration community of Amiens engaged in this same procedure on Friday to support the club.
"An inappropriate decision"
And Alain Geist, president of Amiens Métropole, contacted by 20 Minutes, hopes to succeed. "It's a bit like a match ends twenty minutes before the end," he said. How, therefore, to choose the winner and the loser while remaining fair? Because the regulations of the LFP does not provide anything in front of such a case of force majeure. "Under these conditions, the general principle of law is equity", specifies Alain Geist.
However, SC Amiens, second to last in the classification, paid the price for the LFP's decision when they saw themselves demoted to L2 without being able to defend their chances on the field. "It is an inappropriate decision," he protested. The position of the League is, both in form and in substance, manifestly unfounded, inconsistent and inequitable. "
Harm for Amiens Métropole
"We are bound to the club by an agreement for the use of the stadium," explains the elected official. The descent into Ligue 2 makes us lose 150,000 euros per year. And we have invested a lot to modernize this stadium. But it is above all the indirect consequences on the territory that the elected official fears.
“The financial damage is enormous. Local economic attractiveness and media spin-offs have nothing to do with moving into L1 or L2. Not to mention the direct job losses. All because of a lottery decision, ”he said. And Alain Geist to accuse: “It would not have happened this way if Guingamp [favorite club of the president of the French football Federation, Noël Le Graët] or Le Havre [city of which Edouard Philippe is the former mayor] had been concerned ”.
Another solution ?
The president of Amiens Métropole says he is ready to go to the Council of State to defend the interests of the club and its metropolis. But is there a solution? If justice gives reason to Amiens, the club offers a 2021-22 season exceptionally composed of 22 clubs (instead of 20) in the elite, by renouncing its own TV rights.
An exception in which the club of AC Ajaccio, also despoiled by the current decision of the LFP, intends to rush after having seized, for its part, the National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) to request compliance with the regulations concerning the accession to L1.
Have the French football authorities made a decision too quickly? It will be up to justice to decide. Competition has just resumed in Germany and the three other major European championships (Italy, England and Spain) have not given up on this idea.
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