Pascal Foussard is an angry man.
And especially "at the end" as he says himself.
The general manager of the Tours club is tired of these ubiquitous, incoherent situations caused by the health crisis.
Arrived in Perugia, Italy, Sunday to play the last group stage of the Champions League, they play a final game without a stake this Thursday evening against the local club.
Above all, Tour players are limited in their movements, do not have the right to leave their hotel except to go to the hall to train or play.
“We learned on Sunday evening, shortly after our arrival, that the Perugia region was in the red zone,” says Foussard.
It’s a real nightmare.
Our Brazilian players almost couldn't come because the Italian authorities thought they were coming directly from Brazil and refused to welcome them.
In Tours, to avoid contact at airports or train stations as much as possible, we made all the trips by bus, and there we had to take a flight with a plane that was full.
We were all on top of each other.
We wonder what we're doing here.
The CEV (
European confederation
) does everything to ensure that we play since the rules allow to come with only 6 players.
But I wonder what all this is for.
We have the impression that we have to play competitions at all costs.
"
"Monstrous" Gary Chauvin last night against @VolleyLube 🤩
🏐💥 Despite a very good match, @ToursVolleyBall conceded a logical 3-1 defeat (22-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-15)
⏰ Next meeting @CEVolleyballCL Thursday at 8:30 p.m. against @SIRVolleyPG! # SEFvolley @ FFvolley pic.twitter.com/w3pyTVyEAl
- Sport in France (@sport_en_france) February 10, 2021
The leader also wonders about the interest of maintaining the European Cups in this unique season.
“The winner of the European Cup this year will look like?
During the first session there are more than 56% of the matches of the CEV which could not be played, there will perhaps be canceled quarter-finals too… This is not how I see it. sport.
"
Located in the same hotel as them - but “on another floor to avoid any contact” - the Italians of Lube Civitanova are also faced with this situation of semi-confinement.
Perugia players can return home between training sessions.
The Izmir club, already out of the race, preferred to stay in Turkey.
"The Turks did not want to spend money, they may have been right," continues Foussard.
Plane tickets are expensive at the moment and a week in a hotel is not cheap.
The bill goes up to 30,000 euros and we have no revenue to amortize.
When we received a group stage in Tours there were almost the two best teams in the world, but we couldn't make a recipe because of the closed session.
The CEV pays a small compensation but that will not dampen the European campaign.
"
The club risks a septaine if a player is declared positive
The club must also bear the cost of the PCR tests (60 euros on average in Italy).
“We are entitled to free antigenic tests every day but we have requested PCR tests otherwise we cannot take the plane back to France,” explains the manager.
Hopefully no one will be positive otherwise it means we will be stuck in quarantine here for at least 7 days.
We've all had the Covid but we don't know if we have immunity.
This all has a cost.
It is a very anxiety-provoking situation.
I understand that athletes are not a priority for the vaccine but we are forced to play, to travel.
In France, the plays have not resumed with the camera.
We are forced to continue otherwise we will be withdrawn of aid.
We've been in this situation for a year.
We had to play two matches with the public in Tours, and again with suitable gauges.
We are afraid for the future.
"
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
Dubious about the holding of European competitions and worried about the future of his sport, Pascal Foussard, also general manager of the France team, does not hide his apprehensions for the next international events.
"I hear that the World League (
competition scheduled from May
) will be played in a bubble for 40 days, but personally I do not think we can have the same conditions as in the NBA.
We can accept things for the Olympics, because it's every four years but for the rest I don't see the point.
"