Ligue 1 Season Ends As France’s Government Bans Sporting Events Until September

 

The top two football leagues in France will not see out the remainder of the 2019-20 season. Edouard Philippe, France’s prime minister, announced that gatherings of more than 5,000 people can’t take place until September at the earliest, as the country continues to battle COVID-19. As a result, he then announced that football and the rest of the professional sports in the country will be postponed.

The news came on the same day that the chairman of FIFA’s medical committee said that September 1st should be the earliest day that football should return.

What this means for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 is unclear. Paris Saint-Germain has a comfortable 12-point lead over second-place Marseille with a game in hand. PSG are the best team in Ligue 1 and they likely would have won the championship.

No one knows if PSG will be crowned champions and UEFA Champions/UEFA Europa League spots and promotion/relegation with Ligue 2 are all up in the air.

As for the current UEFA Champions League, there is no word on how this will impact Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille, who were still in the tournament. ESPN FC reported that there is increasing skepticism that the UEFA Champions League will be able to resume.

“The decision ends Ligue 1 and Ligue 2’s hopes of returning to training in May for a mid-June restart and puts further pressure on UEFA regarding the Champions League, with Paris Saint-Germain in the quarterfinals and Lyon leading Juventus in their round-of-16 tie. UEFA had planned to play the Champions League to a finish in August but this is becoming increasingly doubtful.”