Coronavirus: Ligue 1 will be completed – LFP President

 
The President of the French Football League (LFP),  Nathalie Boy de la Tour, has said that the Ligue 1 season will be completed.

She expressed the completion that the country’s top-flight calendar will be honoured while speaking to BeIN SPORTS.

League action was suspended until further notice due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed the lives of over 5000 people globally with over a million infected.

The governing body had initially ordered all matches to be played behind closed doors until 15 April. But a vote by the LFP’s Administrative Council on Friday last week led to immediate suspension of games in France’s two professional divisions.

With ten more rounds of games to complete the season with the runaway leaders, Paris Saint-Germain and RC Strasbourg Alsace having one outstanding each, there are also still the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue finals to be played.

As the deadly virus continues to wreak havoc globally, it is uncertain if the 2019/20 domestic and European season wil be completed as planned with the Tokyo Olympics and the Euros 2020 competition coming up later in the year.

Speaking further, she said there are a lot of alternative solutions that might occur, but she remained convinced that the remaining games will be completed.

Not wanting to be thinking of alternative solutions, she added that there are still a lot of weeks ahead, which gives the governing body to reschedule several games a week, which is an alternative solution to addressing the current challenge.

While noting that such arrangement will help the body finish games being given priority, she said further assessment would be made after today’s meeting of UEFA, where discussions will be based primarily on this summer’s UEFA EURO 2020 tournament,  the Champions League and Europa League.

Speaking on the virus, she said the plan of the current domestic calendar would be determined by the health authorities who can give the all-clear for play to resume.

She also added that today’s UEFA meeting could open new perspectives on the way forward.

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed