Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu wants professional sport to resume "with the public in the stadiums" this summer, especially for the resumption of Ligue 1, which she again justifies stopping the season, bluntly responding to the president of Lyon Jean-Michel Aulas.
"Give chances to have a popular sport"
"My goal is precisely that the sport resumes in good conditions, with the public in the stadiums, in particular the football championship in August. That the two clubs concerned by the Champions League (Paris SG and Lyon, Editor's note ) can redo friendly matches before finishing their European course. And then, prepare for the start of the academic year according to the information that the Ministry of Health will give us, "Roxana Maracineanu told the newspaper L'Alsace .
"My desire is to give us chances to have a popular sport, with supporters in the stadiums, even in limited numbers, why not from the end of July if possible," also said the Minister of Sports. On the final cessation of the Ligue 1 season, criticized while the championship has resumed in Germany and will resume in Spain, England and Italy, Ms. Maracineanu replies that the French are "not the only ones in this case: l "Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium have also decided to stop their championships for health reasons".
"Each country has its own way of seeing things"
"I repeat what I said before: we made this decision not to put our athletes at risk. We decided to consider them as citizens like the others," she said. What, then, of the four major European championships that have resumed or will resume? "Each country has its own way of seeing things on the economic level, on the sporting level ... We, we made the collective choice to support all the economic actors of our country so that they pass this health crisis with the least possible damage, "replied the minister.
As for Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of the OL who multiplies appeals and declarations against the judgment of Ligue 1, "the cinemas will reopen soon. If Mr. Aulas has different scenarios to propose, I invite him to make a film of it and offer it in the theater since there will be an audience, "tackles the former swimmer.