Emmanuel Macron and Noël Le Graët during the final of the Coupe de France 2020. -
FRANCK FIFE / AFP
The amateur clubs still qualified must play their 6th round this weekend in the lane reserved for them by the FFF.
Many plan to forfeit when the players have not played for 3 months and have just returned to group training, with no waiver for the curfew.
Noël Le Graët and the Federation, accused of wanting to promote professional clubs, have not escaped criticism.
They are the only ones to pray for an immediate containment, with all the infectious diseases specialists in France.
Less out of fear of the virus, concerning them, than because of the unpleasant prospect of passing for clowns the weekend that comes in the Coupe de France.
Amateur clubs do not have strong enough words to season their parent federation.
The latter decided to send them to the pipe breaker after three months without matches and almost without training.
Decision January 19, games the 30th and 31st, deal with that.
Several clubs have decided not to play
General alert in clubhouses, where the presidents and their coaches of the pennant team are scratching their heads: should you play at the risk of threatening the physical integrity of the players or withdraw from a spirit of responsibility?
After the small Norman club of Régionale 1, Flers, which opened the ball on Saturday,
20 minutes
went fishing for information.
The results of our sample?
A safe package, another probable, and two clubs that will go backwards after an internal survey in the locker room.
This is the case of the famous Petit Poucet of the competition, the Entente Sportive club Paulhan-Pezenas, a departmental team (10th level of French football) of the Occitan league.
"I understand that the guys want to play but some have not run for two months, it's suicide, gets carried away Thierry Perez, its president.
We have done four training sessions since the resumption, with students who have not been able to free themselves for the most part.
So after 90 minutes, without overtime, you never know, but I wanted to mark the occasion and withdraw ”.
"We would be too quickly in the red"
A choice that will undoubtedly make the small Breton club of Gas Saint Yves BB (7th level), which was however happy to come across the biggest club in the area.
Except that the Stade Briochin, resident of National, continued its season as if it were not, when the players of Eric Hernandez and Franck Fidry dawdled on the sofa.
“In November in the draw we said to ourselves 'Owl, it will be a great party, and then why not create the feat,' explains the latter, assistant coach.
Today, if we decide to go and play, it's like going to a slaughterhouse.
It's accidental, even a cardiovascular injury eventually, because we would very quickly be in the red against a pro team that trains every day ”.
Since resuming sporting activity in a club according to very rigid protocols, only half of the workforce has shown up for training without a ball.
And again, it was before the 6 p.m. curfew, which definitely hampered the preparation for this weekend, since the FFF did not obtain a special exemption in the deal negotiated with the State.
The senior group has been polled to come to train at 6am, but most of the players have declined.
"There are some who work very early, and then we don't have access to the changing rooms, or anything, does that mean coming to work in football gear?
», Plague Eric Hernandez, the main trainer.
It is he who will have to pass the pill in the locker room if the decision of the package is confirmed: "It will complain for sure, but it is out of the question to risk their health."
Noël Le Graët on the dock
In Alsace, the tone has also risen.
The team from Illkirch-Graffenstaden, a town right next to Strasbourg, will not be on the Haguenau lawn next Sunday.
A boycott at the initiative of the president of the club, Guy Massaloux, general practitioner in the civilian sector.
The leader denounces the "absurdity" of such programming after three months without a match and especially in the midst of the pandemic rebound.
"While we are doing everything to contain it, are we going to play football?
It is irresponsible in our situation.
I would add that the labs, doctors or pharmacists are not available to footballers for their tests [the day before the match and the same day].
They have other priorities and all of that comes at a cost.
What if we cause a cluster on arrival?
No, really, I can't condone that.
"
The captain of the formation of N3, Vincent Destenay, neither.
“I don't even understand why we are having this debate.
The country's situation is more important than a match, we made the right decision ”.
Will it be financially sanctioned?
Guy Massaloux indicates that the Ligue du Grand-Est has assured him otherwise.
"I do not know, we are not there", nuances the president of the body Albert Gemmrich, before defending the programming of the FFF: "Fortunately that the Federation made sure to play, to go out a little of the ambient gloom.
"
The clubs are however very upset against the management of the case by Noël Le Graët.
“We can feel the foutage of mouth of the Federation, fulminates Philippe Calvé, president of FC Parisis, the smallest survivor in Ile-de-France.
We are going to resume in lamentable conditions.
But it makes sense.
We have a president who thinks only of the France team and who has despised amateur clubs for a long time ”.
The history of the professional path and the amateur path goes badly.
The Federation is suspected of having favored a cut at a discount.
"The packages of amateur clubs, it suits them, that's why we will play, I do not want to prove them right".
12 million euros donated to amateur clubs
Pierre Samsonoff, director of the Amateur Football League within the Fédé, may advance on RMC that "the Coupe de France is a major lever for redistribution, with a total of 12 million euros in endowments that it is fundamental to maintain vis-à-vis amateur football ”, the argument does not take.
Even in Betagne, birthplace of Noël Le Graët, we show our teeth.
The district of Finistère, that of the Gars Saint Yves club, sent a letter to rue de Grenelle to complain.
“I am sick of football, continues Franck Fidry.
Amateur football is completely denigrated on this point.
Either we are told that the Coupe de France is canceled for amateurs, or we are given the chance to prepare properly ”.
Another letter arrived directly at the headquarters of the ministry, signed Régis Juanico.
The Socialist deputy of the Loire, who closely follows the sporting thing, asks Roxana Maracineanu "to adjust the calendar according to the amateur clubs.
I understood that the number 1 criterion of the federation was financial interest, but at least exceptions are needed to allow evening training and the organization of friendly matches in order to give meaning to the word sports fairness ”.
The Minister of Sport has not planned to move on the subject, especially as the Defense Council scheduled for Wednesday could put everyone in agreement in the event of reconfinement.
"Everyone understood that if we did not play this weekend, it was over for the Coupe de France, concedes Thierry Perez, president of the Occitan Petit Poucet.
But I would be relieved, somewhere ”.
Sport
Curfew: MPs demand exemptions from Maracineanu for amateur club training
Sport
Coupe de France: But why are so few eighth round matches televised?
Soccer
Noël le Graët
French Cup
Sport