An interministerial crisis unit (CIC) is expected to meet this Friday afternoon.
If it will look at the request of the Professional Football League (LFP), which wants to lighten the health protocol in order to avoid the postponements of matches, it is not certain that arbitrations will be rendered as of this evening.
The multiplication of cases of Covid at PSG, in a particular context of holidays in Ibiza, should not have an influence on the orientation of the CIC, which bases its decisions above all on scientific and legal criteria.
The stake of the CIC meeting is not to know when a match should take place and with how many players - "this is the responsibility of the League", we are told at the state level - but to define the availability of a player who has tested positive or who has been in contact with an infected person.
The Football League is notably waiting to know how a club should handle a contact case and therefore which players remain at the disposal of the club.
Regular tests and traceability of cases
If common law is applied, a contact case is placed in solitary confinement for 7 days, before being tested again and being authorized after another 7 days to mingle with a group of people.
The decision concerning the procedure to be put in place lies with the ARS (regional health agencies).
Disparities may exist depending on the region and therefore the clubs affected by cases of Covid-19, the ARS being able to request that the entire workforce, or even the entire club, be placed in isolation.
“The other issue for the CIC is therefore to know if we can ensure that the rule is the same throughout France”.
A common rule for all ARS and therefore for all professional clubs that would be affected by a case of Covid.
The Football League highlights the fact that professional footballers are very regularly tested and that “traceability” allows, for example, to know that on D-2 or D-3 if they were negative.
The isolation period could therefore be reduced, which would allow “contact cases” to continue training (even in small groups) and ensure sufficient staff to ensure the holding of championship matches.
"What are the contact cases that must be isolated, for how long and under what conditions?"
So how do you qualify a player as available?
These are the answers that the Football League is waiting for, ”a source close to the government told us.
Once these answers have been obtained, she can then set up her new health protocol.
With one principle: as long as 20 players in the workforce (to be drawn from a list of 25 to 30 players for example) are negative, the match is maintained.
