The Lorient-Dijon match counting for the 20th day of Ligue 1, scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed indefinitely because more than ten players from the Breton club are affected by Covid-19, the Professional Football League (LFP) announced on Friday.
The Strasbourg-Saint-Étienne meeting, scheduled for Sunday (3:00 p.m.), is under threat, because several players and members of the management of AS Saint-Étienne have tested positive, warned ASSE on Friday.
Lorient-Dijon is the first match postponed due to the pandemic since Marseille-Nice on the 11th day, a decision dating from November 17.
Coincidentally, this OM-OGCN has just been rescheduled Friday to February 17 at 9 p.m., announced the LFP.
In Lorient, the club announced the closure for at least 10 days of its training center after the discovery of four cases of Covid-19 among young people and management, as Le Havre, Marseille, Nice had to do this fall. or even Brest.
And the contagion could spread: a case of Covid-19 was also detected at the Nantes training center among young people who participated in a friendly match against their Lorient counterparts.
In the Center, Châteauroux announced on Friday seven new cases of Covid-19 among the players and the management, on the eve of a trip to Auxerre in Ligue 2 on Saturday.
Many cases in Saint-Étienne
For Ligue 1, Lorient-Dijon is a crucial match for maintenance.
The DCFO is 18th and jump-off before the 20th day, and the FCL 19th and first relegation, two lengths behind the Burgundians.
"After the opinion of the National Covid Commission" of the French Football Federation (FFF), the LFP Competitions Commission "decided to postpone the match" after noting "the certain absence of more than ten players on the list of the thirty FC Lorient players due to positive RT-PCR tests. "
In accordance with the medical protocol decreed at the beginning of September by the League, the postponement of a meeting is considered if one of the two teams cannot present at least twenty players tested negative on an initial list of thirty.
On Thursday, a twelfth player from the Lorient team had tested positive for Covid-19.
On January 7, four positive Lorient players had been placed in solitary confinement as part of checks before the following Saturday's game in Bordeaux, where FCL lost 2-1.
Negative confirmation tests finally allowed two of these players to return to the squad in time for the match.
However, tests carried out every day since have revealed seven new cases, including two members of the management, Tuesday, then four additional cases Wednesday and finally this new case Thursday.
That is a total of twelve players, including eleven of the thirty members of the professional group.
Lorient also has a suspended player and several injured.
In Saint-Étienne, "the PCR tests carried out Tuesday and last Thursday revealed many positive cases for Covid-19 among the players and members of the management of the professional group" explained the Forézien club in a press release.
"The people concerned have been placed in solitary confinement and new examinations will be carried out this Saturday before the team's trip to Strasbourg in order to confirm the maintenance of its Ligue 1 match", continues ASSE.
The last professional match postponed in France was Niort-Valenciennes, in Ligue 2, scheduled for December 22.
The match was given lost to the Chamois niortais.
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League 1 standings