Bernard Caïazzo (Saint-Etienne), Gérard Lopez (Lille) and Waldemar Kita (Nantes) met this Monday afternoon to discuss in particular the stoppage of Ligue 1 during a press conference by the Premier League, the trade union of major French clubs.
The three presidents of L1 were necessarily very bitter about this decision and assured that the shutdown of Ligue 1 was imposed on them without consultation by the government. "Before April 28, we were starting to look at how to resume by setting up working groups to best prepare for the resumption of Ligue 1, says Bernard Caïazzo. What was not our surprise when hearing the Prime Minister say: The 2019-2020 season cannot resume . Has there been consultation with the other countries? No. Has there been consultation with the major football clubs? No more. "
"I can say on behalf of the Premier League," continues the leader of the Greens, "that there was no consultation with us. I just want to set the record straight, it is a total aberration to say that it was we who did not want to resume. No one scuttles, no one commits suicide, no one in football wanted to kill our economy and have 600 or 700 million shortfalls to supposedly protect a ranking. It is a mistake. Those who want to make you understand another reality by saying that it was the League that made the decision to stop, this is entirely false, and there is a thousand proofs to prove it. "
"We were presented with a fait accompli"
Lille President Gérard Lopez points to the French position which isolates him vis-à-vis UEFA and vis-à-vis the other major championships which have resumed or will resume. “We were presented with a fait accompli. We are receiving a government decision that will slow us down even more compared to other major championships, we really give the stick to be beaten, plague the president of Losc. French football as a whole is injured. We will send our two clubs (PSG and Lyon) to the Champions League when they are not prepared. And then we cry at UEFA to have one more place in C1… ”
After wondering about returning to work except football in France, Nantes president Waldemar Kita is now looking to the future. “The situation is improving, all the indicators are green. Today, we ask restaurateurs, cafetiers to resume their activity with all the precautions but, on our side, we can not then that we wanted to resume work, creaks the president. Now, it is too late from an organizational point of view. We will turn to the future. We will resume collective training around June 15-20 and then play friendlies in July if sanitary conditions allow. "
Finally, the presidents mentioned the transfer market. The international transfer window will not start before July 1, but Bernard Caïazzo wants a French transfer window (with transactions only between clubs in France) in June in order to "be more efficient and save time during the resumption of the training ”.