Suddenly under the icy rain, an image from another time: a real amateur football team that trains legally, without mask or barrier gestures.
Contacts are allowed, everything is normal.
Could the pandemic have avoided Le Mée, just next to Melun?
A clue says no: because of the curfew which prohibits all outdoor activity after 6 p.m., it is 11 a.m. this Saturday morning, a very unusual time to kick the ball.
The players of Régionale 1 (the 6th national division) are preparing an incongruous match in the Coupe de France scheduled for January 30 (2 p.m.) against Red Star (Nat.).
A fifth round match that should have been played in October, just before the second confinement.
But at the time and twice, the match had been postponed due to cases of Covid in the Audonian workforce: "When we were told one Tuesday morning that we were going to play, we were all euphoric, says the coach. Abdellah Oubbana.
It meant the end of a long tunnel.
But this euphoria quickly subsided.
"
PCR and antigen tests before the match
Because the worries that this match imposes are more numerous than the small happiness that it provides: “We will already have to impose a total in camera, confides the president Christian Quillay.
It will not be easy to set up in a municipal enclosure open to all winds.
Afterwards, we will have to organize all the tests for the Covid ”.
And there, it gets even more difficult:
"All players, staff members, officials of the referee club who will attend the match will have to present a negative PCR test carried out less than 72 hours before kick-off", confides the president.
And it is not over, on the day of the match, everyone will also have to perform an antigen test: "Needless to say that all these tests will be the responsibility of the club," continues the president.
When you know that an antigen test costs us 32 € per person… But this will not be the first time that a football match has cost us money.
"
The match counting for the 5th round of the @coupedefrance between the @RedStarFC & Le Mée will be played on Saturday January 30 at 2 p.m.!
pic.twitter.com/X2EjxEURmm
- Red Star FC ✪ (@RedStarFC) January 21, 2021
To carry out the tests, a pharmacist from the city will be requisitioned and during the match, a doctor will be present to check that everything is in order and that all those who enter the stadium are negative for the virus: "despite these constraints, we asked to the players if they wanted to make this match, slips Abdou Oubbana, the former Sénart-Moissy player.
Everyone said yes, so here we go.
Personally, I'm not hot at all, but I understand boys who also want to play because they miss football.
"
"You have to be crazy to play these matches"
Since the start of the first confinement, the Means, counting everything - league games, Cup, preparation this summer - have played 12 times in a year.
A misery.
So yes, they are happy to find the field but without ignoring the risks: “This match is dangerous, Oubbana slips.
Those who made the decision to play this Coupe de France do not realize it.
I only have 10 days, and still juggling curfew times, to fix some guys who haven't played since October 6th.
I'm not even talking about the risks of the Covid which are also real: my fear is that my players fart.
Worse, we can have real accidents, heart attacks.
"
At the end of the first confinement, the recommendation was a minimum of 3 weeks to rehabilitate a team.
This time, it's a little more than a week: “You think,” resumed the Méen coach, that in the departmental teams that will play the Cup and there are some guys left in good shape to do sprints?
You have to be crazy to play these matches.
"
PSG express newsletter
Our information on the capital club
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
The Méens - except positive cases by then - will not withdraw against the Red Star even if this thought crossed them.
But amateur clubs like Flers in Normandy are already refusing to play this Coupe de France, which has not been a party for a long time: “The score, who cares, warns Abdellah Oubbana.
I want us to come out of this match without injury or illness against a team that it has never stopped training or playing.
"
If they qualify, to catch up on the schedule, the Méens will have to replay three days later against Ivry.
“I just also wonder why we play this Cup ?, continues Oubbana.
For financial reasons?
For TV rights?
We know very well that this round will have no tomorrow.
If we are confined again, there will be no other Cup matches as I think we will never resume the championship either.
"
This bizarre match is in the middle of the desert.
It is not even an oasis, especially since it remains threatened until kick-off if all the tests carried out reveal a positive case for the virus.
And all that will have been for nothing either if by the weekend, the country is confined again.
