This is the July puzzle of French sport. Since July 11, the health protocol to prevent a new outbreak of Covid-19 cases has imposed a limit of 5,000 spectators in French sports arenas. The threshold, which we do not yet know until when it will remain in force, complicates the life of French clubs in this traditional summer season of subscriptions.
On Wednesday, FC Lorient, promoted to Ligue 1, announced that it was suspending its campaign which “has known since its launch a craze which testifies to the enthusiasm of Merlus supporters at the idea of regaining Ligue 1. This success must unfortunately be in view of government decisions which for the moment limit the capacity of stadiums to 5,000 people ”, underlines the Breton club.
"FC Lorient has therefore decided to temporarily interrupt the campaign so as not to be forced to make too many disappointments among its subscribers by denying them access to the Moustoir stadium," the statement continued.
In rugby, Brive (Top 14) in the same day stopped its sales of places for the season after having crossed the milestone of 4,500 subscribers. For the same reason.
OL, OM and Saint-Etienne pending
Not all have adopted the same strategy. Another promoted in the elite, RC Lens did not restrain its supporters. In five days, the artesian club recorded more than 6,000 subscriptions at the beginning of July. Contacted by Le Parisien, the Artesian club said that if the gauge was not increased before the first home game against PSG on the weekend of August 29-30, supporters who could not attend the meeting would be reimbursed or would benefit from a credit.
Other Ligue 1 clubs prefer to wait to find out more before opening their ticket office. Angers has postponed its campaign, which was due to start on Wednesday. OL, Saint-Etienne and OM - whose supporters' groups said at the end of June that they refused to choose who could go to the stadium from among their members - have not yet launched their subscription campaign.
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All of these clubs are now waiting to see what comes out of the executive defense council, which meets on Friday. The Minister for Sports and her minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, must present a project, as announced on Monday in Le Parisien, a project aimed at relaxing this limit of 5,000 spectators. The Ministry of Sports wants a system based on physical distancing, which will allow the speakers to have a gauge adapted to their capacity and avoiding to cross too important flows of spectators. It remains to be seen if the state summit will follow.