"Are we going to be able to play our first game? Frankly, I don't know, but we are not reassured. This text full of spite from a president of Ligue 1 sums up the state of mind of French football. Soon two weeks before the first match of the 2020-2021 season, between OM and Saint-Etienne, the picture is enough to tense up the decision-makers: the cases are increasing in the clubs (Strasbourg, Nantes, Lille, Montpellier), the preparation of some players is biased by postponement of friendly matches or social distancing measures in training imposed after positive cases.
In a press release published on Wednesday, the Professional Football League (LFP) said it was "extremely attentive to the medical and health situation". "Established for the resumption of training and preparation matches, the medical protocol must be adjusted this week to communicate to the clubs the last arbitrations for the resumption of the championships", continues the instance.
And resolve several crucial questions for professional training staff: when should the players be tested? Who will do it? And, above all, how to apprehend the contact cases, these people who attended a positive case for Covid-19, today invited to remain in isolation for seven days?
Guingamp placed in solitary confinement
It is this principle that has earned Guingamp (Ligue 2) to stop the preparation of his entire professional group a week ago and to cancel three friendly matches. Returning from an internship, three players and two staff members tested positive for the new coronavirus. "As everyone was staying in the same hotel, the ARS asked that the whole group be put into fourteen", explains the sports director of the Breton club, Xavier Gravelaine. The Guingampais must resume training this Thursday after being tested.
"If we must also isolate the contact cases, we will not get out," pleaded Tuesday in L'Equipe the president of FC Nantes, Waldemar Kita, who identifies eight cases in his professional group. Within clubs, there is a difference in treatment with the standards of UEFA or other countries such as Spain or Germany, which only require the isolation of players who test positive.
Another point of tension: relations with the ARS, considered more or less severe in places. “We plead for a certain consistency, explained to the Parisian the medical director of the FFF, Emmanuel Orhant, a week ago. It should not be that in the same configuration, an ARS decides that a match can be played and another decides that it is not possible to play it. The most important thing is that there is sporting equity between the teams. "
"We risk having a fragmented season"
“There is a problem of uniformity with the ARS, notes Philippe Beury, doctor from Troyes (Ligue 2). Now, even though our goals may clash at times, they are smart people. "" We had to fight to maintain training when most of our players had not had real contact with the one who was positive, annoyed, on condition of anonymity, a doctor from a professional club. Besides that, I have colleagues who have a much cooler relationship with their ARS. We must not forget that we are an outdoor sport. There is little chance that a cluster will form here. "
"It is a figment of the mind to think that you cannot be contaminated outdoors," answers Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist at Garches (Hauts-de-Seine) hospital. If your players congratulate each other after a goal or talk after a game, they can pass Covid-19 to each other. But that does not mean that the problem necessarily comes from the field. Footballers are like all other employees, they can just as easily catch the disease within their family and then bring it back to their workplace. "
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In this context, will French football be able to save itself from postponing official matches in a calendar already loaded by the postponement of the Euro to next summer? "We risk having a fragmented season, we are preparing for it in any case," said Xavier Gravelaine. "I dare to hope that the matches will not be postponed if a team has cases of Covid in its workforce, launches Lille coach Christophe Galtier. We have to adapt and integrate that we can have a lot of missing players because of that. "" We can play if we have two or three positive cases in a team when we have isolated them well with a well-thought-out protocol, says Philippe Beury. We don't cancel games because there are three cases of gastro in a locker room. Well, there it is the same. "