It had been in the air since the end of last week.
It is now official.
In accordance with the recommendations of the Covid group of professional clubs, the LFP has acted, according to our information, this Wednesday morning during its board of directors, a modification of the protocol for the organization of matches.
From now on, a club will only be able to request the postponement of its match from 16 players, instead of 11, positive for Covid on the list of 30 players called to play in L1 or L2.
This provision comes into force immediately and therefore from the 34th day of Ligue 1 and the 35th of Ligue 2. In view of the risks of not being able to finish the championships on the dates scheduled, due to the pandemic, the LFP does not did not hesitate. She did not want to find herself facing a headache with postponed matches and hard-to-find withdrawal dates between the semi-finals and final of the Coupe de France (May 19), on the one hand, and the other the 37th and 38th days of L1 and L2 which must be competed in multiplex, on May 16 and 23, to respect fairness. The situation could even have become inextricable if PSG, still competing in the Champions League, were to be affected by one of these postponements.
As a reminder, since September 2020, the clubs have provided a list of thirty players called to play in Ligue 1. Beyond ten positive cases on this list, a match had to be postponed before the adjustment made on Wednesday. Such a scenario has thus arisen on 5 occasions (Lens-Nantes, OM-Lens, OM-Nice, Nîmes-Lorient and Lorient-Dijon). Subject to an initial health protocol linked to the even more drastic pandemic (beyond three positive tests a match could be postponed), the meeting between Marseille and Saint-Etienne, scheduled to open the championship on August 21, had, for its part, had to be postponed to September 17 due to 4 cases of Covid-19 detected within the OM workforce.