Coronavirus: LFP announces its top priority

The board of directors of the LFP, the governing body of the French League games, has said that its priority is to complete the season despite its schedule being severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the LFP Board of Directors, they aim to ensure that the Ligue 1 Conforama and Domino’s Ligue 2 under its jurisdiction are completed at least a month later than planned.

The deadly virus has forced the country to suspend all sporting activities as the death toll hit over 6000 globally, with the epicenter now being Europe.

Speaking on the development, LFP executive director Didier Quillot said their major goal is to do everything they can to ensure the league season ends on 30 June, adding that if the situation requires that they finish later, they will adapt.

While noting that the clubs and the players will have to adapt with the schedule as much as they can, said LFP president Nathalie Boy de la Tour expressed delight over the decision taken by UEFA to postpone the Euros by a year, adding that the resolve of the Administrative Council meeting on Tuesday was for sporting and economic reasons, which is vital for the future of the clubs and French football.

Also speaking, French national football team coach, Didier Deschamp, who was at the league body meeting noted that there was a unity of decisions among the clubs, making the European Leagues and Fifpro approve UEFA’s decision and its guidelines, which allows clubs to play their remaining games unlike before that the league games have to be played in the weekends while the European clubs competition takes place in the midweek.

With the decision reached by UEFA and the virus is still being battled from spreading further, there is still a question mark on when football actions will resume. The decision lies with the health expert as human lives take priority over the game.

Presently, the French league has to fix 23 game days on its calendar, which is very tight at the moment. Within the short period, the league leaders, Paris Saint Germaine, for instance, will have to compete in the Champions League, French Cup, and the remaining Ligue 1 games to defend its title.

It could be recalled that the governing body has postponed Ligue 1 games to 15 April. This gives clubs players two weeks to isolate and two weeks to train for the remaining games.

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed