Coronavirus: how football is coping with the multiplication of cases

Three positive cases in Lille. Three also, then five contaminated at FC Nantes, forced to give up on a trip to Charleroi. A friendly match canceled between Montpellier and Sète because of a case of Covid-19 in the ranks of the National club. And now a new player affected by the new coronavirus at Real Madrid and Sevilla FC. At the end of July, European football sees the epidemic touching one of its representatives almost every day. An acceleration that comes when the Europa League and the Champions League must resume in a week and three weeks from the 2020-2021 edition of Ligue 1.

“It is not surprising, judge Fabrice Bryand, former doctor of the French football team and FC Nantes. Positive cases multiply in the general population, so mechanically they multiply in football clubs. Clubs can set up whatever protocols they want, footballers practice an activity where distancing and wearing a mask is impossible. When you are hyperventilated and find yourself defending against another player on a static phase, you increase your chances of contracting the virus. And that is without counting their activities outside the training center that the club does not control. "

Medical director of the French Football Federation, Emmanuel Orhant attributes this increase to the regular tests carried out on the players. “A test is not a blank check,” he emphasizes. Just because you've been tested once and are negative doesn't mean you can't catch it afterwards. We apply this principle to players and that's why we often test them. And statistically, over time, you're going to end up having cases. "

Compulsory tests in the Champions League and Europa League

Logically, the FFF forced the players and staff of PSG and Saint-Etienne to undergo PCR tests two days before their Coupe de France final on Friday. It also applies to the Coupe de la Ligue final between Parisians and OL this Friday evening. UEFA, for its part, will force the teams participating in Final 8 of the Champions League in Portugal (12-23 August) and the Europa League in Germany (10-21 August) to submit to tests, carried out by independent laboratories, one or two days before their match. Positive cases will be sent to isolation.

In France, it is the public authorities, and locally the regional health agencies (ARS) which manage contamination with the clubs. In the case of FC Nantes, the club was able, in agreement with the ARS of Pays de la Loire, to isolate contact cases ( Editor's note: people in contact with an infected person ) and to organize its training. According to our information, an ARS has considered suspending the training of a Ligue 2 club before retracting, convinced of the measures put in place to prevent the spread in the locker room.

Resumption of training in an appropriate and specific manner in strict compliance with health instructions to prevent Covid-19 💪 pic.twitter.com/feu8MwIA6C

“The club doctors do an extraordinary job,” emphasizes Emmanuel Orhant. They watch their players, multiply the questionnaires, trace and try to make sure that everything goes best in this complicated context. “To clarify things before the resumption of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, the medical directorate of the FFF is working on a protocol that it must submit to the Professional Football League before notifying the State.

"If your three goalkeepers are positive, how do you do?"

"These multiplication of cases will pose concrete problems when the championships resume," says Fabrice Bryand. If all three of your goalies are positive, how do you do it? What if you only have 13 players? From one week to the next, some teams will be decimated or will have all their best players, it will be difficult to manage. Especially since we will not understand that we do not apply the same precautionary principles to footballers as to the rest of the population. "

"We plead for a certain consistency," supports Emmanuel Orhant. It should not be that in the same configuration, an ARS decides that a match can be played and another decides that it is not possible to play it. The most important thing is that there is sporting equity between the teams. "

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If France still has a little time to fine-tune its system, UEFA will see theirs be put to the test with the multiplication of European matches in the coming days. The European body said Thursday it was "confident" about the holding of the meetings of Sevilla FC, against AS Rome, and Real Madrid against Manchester City. But it will also have to manage the health context of the continent. This Thursday, the president of Naples has already asked that his club does not play its knockout round return of the Champions League on the lawn of FC Barcelona, ​​soaring cases in Catalonia oblige.