French football, other sports won't resume before September
French professional soccer, rugby and other league sports will never be allowed to return before September, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Tuesday, in comments that seemed to call an end with their 2019-20 seasons.
The French football league is likely to decide in-may on exactly how to end the Ligue 1 season, which currently has Paris St Germain leading Olympique Marseille by 12 points. The 2020-2021 season have been due to get started in August.
"The 2019-2020 season of professional sports, especially that of football, will never be able to resume," Philippe told parliament when announcing plans to get rid of the national lockdown that has been in place since March 17.
"To give event organisers visibility, I want to inform you that major sporting and cultural events, specifically festivals, major trade fairs, all events that gather more than 5,000 participants and are therefore the subject of a declaration at the authorities headquarters and should be organised well beforehand, can't be held before September," Philippe said.
France gets the world's fourth-highest death toll from the virus, behind america, Italy and Spain. Football authorities had hoped to resume their season in June.
Philippe did not especially mention the Tour de France, which the International Cycling Union (UCI) said earlier this month would be postponed to Aug. 29-Sept. 20 from its original June 27 start date because of the pandemic.
It was not immediately clear if the Tour, the world's biggest annual cycling competition, would now start without spectators or whether it could be moved back some more days.
The sports ministry and Tour organisers weren't available for comment, as the UCI cannot be reached.
The Tour's schedule will impact other big cycling events, as the UCI has said Italy's Giro and Spain's Vuelta would abide by it in a revised calendar.
All major European soccer leagues have been halted due to the spread of the brand new coronavirus, and none have resumed yet.
The Dutch declared their soccer season over when the federal government extended a ban on public events to Sept. 1. The Eredivisie has said you will see no title awarded no relegations or promotions made - a decision strongly criticised by some of the clubs affected.
European soccer body UEFA has given leagues a May 25 deadline to see them of their plans to restart their domestic competitions.
The German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and English Premier League have all said they would like to finish their seasons.
