French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced Tuesday that the country will prohibit all large sporting events until September because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, effectively canceling the Ligue 1 soccer season.
France is the second major European soccer power — and the first in the continent’s consensus top five that also includes England, Spain, Germany and Italy — to end its professional season prematurely, joining the Netherlands, whose government announced last week that it will not allow any major sporting events to be played in the country (even those played without fans) until Sept. 1 at the earliest. The ruling ended the season of the Dutch Eredivisie, and the Royal Netherlands Football Association sparked controversy after it decided to allocate places in next season’s financially lucrative European competitions based on the standings when play was halted.
FC Utrecht, for instance, was in sixth place when play was halted, falling one spot short of qualifying for next season’s Europa League. But Utrecht had played one fewer game than fifth-place Willem II yet had a better goal differential, and team owner Frans van Seumeren said his club will “use all the lawyers we can” to reverse the decision.
AZ Alkmaar tied Ajax for first place but will be considered the second-place team — and given a tougher path in next season’s Champions League — because of its inferior goal differential.
The Dutch also will not employ the usual relegation and promotion this season, angering officials and fans of Cambuur Leeuwarden, which was leading the second-tier Keuken Kampioen division when play was halted.
“I can’t understand it,” club director Ard de Graaf said. “It feels very unjust.”
French soccer officials will have to make similar decisions over the next month. Last week, European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, said it was urging leagues “to explore all possible options” to finish their seasons, perhaps via “a different format” — possibly playoffs — than the usual standings-based system of awarding placement in European club competitions. If leagues are unable to finish their seasons, UEFA said European spots should be awarded based on “sporting merit in the 2019/20 domestic competitions."
Ligue 1 teams had either 10 or 11 matches remaining when play was halted. Paris Saint-Germain had a sizable lead over second-place Marseille at the top of the standings, and Marseille was six points clear of third-place Rennes and seven ahead of fourth-place Lille.
The top two teams in the French standings advanced directly to the group stage of the next season’s Champions League, with the third-place team receiving a bye into the third qualifying round. The fourth-place team receives a Europa League bid.
Last week, soccer officials in Germany — where efforts to combat the coronavirus have been more successful than in other nations — announced that they hoped to restart their season in early May, pending government approval to play games in empty stadiums (which could come Thursday). In England, Premier League clubs have opened their training facilities to individual players and hope to resume play in early June.
