French season suspended ‘until further notice’

PARIS: The French football season has been suspended “until further notice” because of the coronavirus outbreak, the LFP, which runs the elite Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, announced yesterday.

In a statement, the league said it had taken a “unanimous” decision to stop playing with immediate effect at an emergency meeting yesterday, having previously said games would continue to be played behind closed doors until mid-April.

Covid-19 has already killed 61 people and infected almost 2,900 in France, according to official statistics.

The move came after French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced that schools in France would close indefinitely to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and urged people over 70 and the infirm to stay home.

“As the president of the republic stressed yesterday, the collective interest must be placed above all else.

“The urgency today is to curb the epidemic, protect the most vulnerable and avoid travel,” the league said in a statement.

The move means France follows other leading European leagues in closing down the season, with all sport in Italy stopped until early April and the next two rounds of matches in La Liga in Spain postponed.

In addition, the Dutch and Swiss domestic leagues have been put on hold until the end of the month, while Portugal has announced its top two divisions will be suspended “indefinitely.”

Meanwhile, the German football league (DFL) has announced it will propose on Monday suspending the top two divisions until at least April 2 over the coronavirus pandemic.

“The president of the DFL will propose at the general assembly on Monday to interrupt matches in the two leagues from Tuesday until the end of the international window,” read a statement yesterday.

This weekend’s Bundesliga games will go ahead behind closed doors. German health minister Jens Spahn has called for all events with more than 1,000 people to be cancelled “until further notice.”

But the decision to close stadium doors rests ultimately with regional authorities and is made on a case-by-case basis.

“The DFL and the clubs are in constant contact with the federal health department and the local authorities... the rule is the orders from these authorities must be applied,” the league’s statement added.

“The goal is still to get to the end of the season before the summer, for sporting reasons, but also because a permanent stoppage to the season would put the survival of certain clubs in danger.”

An extension of the season into June would require postponing Euro 2020, which is due to start June 12.