Chevrières-Grandfresnoy is well qualified for the 5 th round of the French Women's Cup.
The Oise club, resident of Departmental 1, learned about it last Friday by an email sent by the Ligue des Hauts-de-France.
The regional authority therefore reversed its decision taken at first instance, then in the appeal committee, to withdraw the penalty shoot-out from the previous round's match against Mérignies (R 1), which had ended. by the victory of the Oisiennes on October 18 (1-1, 4-2 in the tabs).
Such an outcome would undoubtedly not have been possible without the intervention of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), to which the Picardy leaders had turned to settle the dispute.
As a reminder of the facts, an astonishing scenario was formed during this meeting of the 4th round.
At the end of the match, the Northerners make a reservation indicating that one of the shooters from Chevrières-Grandfresnoy was no longer on the field at the final whistle, which the regulations prohibit.
However, none of the three official referees, who failed to note certain changes, is able to confirm or deny this assertion!
When in doubt, the League asks the northern players to travel again the 150 km that separate them from the Oise, only to repeat the fateful session.
The CNOSF raises a problem of substance and form
Deeming itself aggrieved, the Oisien club, which ensures that the said player was present at the end of the match, then appealed to the CNOSF.
In a report sent at the beginning of last week, the latter recommended that the League endorse the result.
To justify his position, he raised a fundamental problem: in case of doubt, the official documents are authentic.
And the match sheet indicates the entry of the offending player in the 30th minute, without any trace of a potential exit being noted.
In addition, since the penalty shoot-out was two goals behind, his goal did not have a decisive influence on the final result.
“As we cannot prove that we are at fault, we are presumed innocent”, explains the president of Chevrières-Grandfresnoy, Laurent Briest.
The more so as the Committee also evoked a concern about the form, moreover already explained in the minutes of the legal appeal commission: the complaint of Mérignies was in reality "not a technical reservation, because posed after the whistle signaling the end of the match, but a post-match observation ”.
However, the regulations clearly indicate that the League does not have the authority to modify the result of a match from a simple observation.
“We had a good feeling vis-à-vis the CNOSF, this was confirmed, appreciates Laurent Briest.
We wanted the truth to be restored.
Justice has been served, and our integrity is not being tested.
We are not cheaters.
If we had had the slightest doubt, we wouldn't have appealed.
Our daughters obtained their result on the field, in the rules of the art.
However, due to the uncertainty that hangs over the rest of the Coupe de France, all these efforts may go unheeded.
“We know our next opponent, Boulogne-sur-Mer, but will this match take place?
asks Briest.
But the important thing was above all to show that we were an honest club.
"