The players and staff of the France team should have met at the end of March to play two preparatory games for Euro 2020, against Ukraine and Finland. But the Covid-19 epidemic forced international authorities to cancel these two friendly matches and postpone the European Nations Championship for a year. We will therefore no longer see the Blues before the start of the school year. For the time being dormant, football has become, in any case, very secondary. The health crisis and its dramatic consequences, in France as in the whole world, monopolizes all the spirits and mobilizes energies.
On the initiative of the French football federation (FFF) and its president Noël Le Graët with whom they maintain relationships of trust, the players and the technical staff of the French team have decided to support the nursing staff hospitals in Ile-de-France and support research at the national level.
An extremely substantial sum, the amount of which has not been filtered, will thus be paid in the coming days to the foundation of the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP). According to our information, the commitment letter is signed. If the FFF did not wish to communicate on the subject, the foundation of the AP-HP should formalize in the day of this Friday this significant boost.
5000 carers invited to each match
The FFF and the Blues decided not to settle for a big check. According to our information, each time the French team will perform at the Stade de France at the start of the school year and until the end of the calendar year, 5,000 places will be offered to nursing staff. The same operation will also see the light of day for meetings organized in the provinces, in particular with the French women's team, whose European Championship, scheduled for 2021, should be postponed for a year.
This effort made by the FFF and the Blues is not isolated. While the body is considering helping amateur football, several internationals have agreed to lower wages in their clubs (Juventus, Barcelona, Bayern Munich ...) or have taken individual initiatives like Pogba which launched a call for donations in collaboration with UNICEF or Mbappé who came to the aid of the homeless through the Abbé Pierre Foundation. Didier Deschamps has, for two years, made his image available to the Yellow Pieces operation which improves the daily life of hospitalized children.
Whether they play in France, England, Germany, Spain or Italy, Hugo Lloris and his teammates are currently confined to their homes, like the vast majority of citizens of the countries in which they reside. Communication between them is obviously less fluid than when they are together in Clairefontaine. And the tone of their discussions, given the circumstances, much less light. One of them, Blaise Matuidi, the midfielder of Juventus Turin, was also affected by the coronavirus. Even if his health does not cause any concern, the former Parisian saw his quarantine March 31 to be extended by 14 days.