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Ligue 1 restart in crisis as season opener is CANCELED
- France’s top-flight league was set to resume on Friday
- These plans in disarray as season opened between Marseille and St Etienne is called off after four players test positive for coronavirus
- Mental Health and Psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 pandemic
Ligue 1 restart is crisis as opening match is cancelled.
France’s top-flight league is set to restart on Friday but these plans are now in jeopardy.
Marseille were set to take on St Etienne on Friday in the league’s opening match.
The match has now been postponed after they announced that there have been three new coronavirus cases reported.
Marseille carried out more tests on Monday and, while no new cases were found, three positive tests from Sunday were confirmed, as well as Jordan Amavi’s positive case from last week.
A la suite des tests effectués ce lundi, aucun nouveau cas de #COVID19 n’a été révélé, mais les 3 cas suspects de dimanche ont été confirmés.
Le club a transmis l’ensemble des éléments à la @LFPfr. pic.twitter.com/jUU0uJL2wD
— Olympique de Marseille (@OM_Officiel) August 18, 2020
Both Marseille and Saint-Etienne quickly announced their game has been called off on Tuesday morning and it will now be played at a later date.
The Ligue de Football Professionnel’s rules state that if a team has more than three players or members of backroom staff test positive over the course of eight days than a game can be postponed.
The LFP’s ‘Covid Commission’ were due to meet again on Tuesday after already holding initial talks over the possibility of postponing the game on Monday.
Marseille were forced to cancel a friendly against Stuttgart last week after Amavi tested positive for Covid-19.
The French season is preparing to start again after the 2019-20 campaign was curtailed due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Protocol at the time stated that professional sports in France could not return before September but the government has since given the green light for the top flight to return this weekend.
