If Anne Hidalgo had in her brain the intersection of coronavirus and football last Wednesday night, when her beloved PSG scored a miraculous position in the last 4 of the Champions League with two goals back against Atalanta in the 90th minute, it was shown in Paris. . The mayor’s Twitter account. Hidalgo sent ten tweets or retweets in a row about the club’s exploits overnight. “Bravo and thank you, what a joy !!!!!! Paris, the ultimate charming team,” he said effusively after PSG won his dreams.
In fact, the club has not been to the last 4 of Europe in 25 years, despite Qatari ownership in the last nine follies about superstars (Ibrahimovic, Beckham, Neymar, Mbappé) for not living up to the task several times or before the quarter-finals.
This time it was different, in a backing through a pandemic in Lisbon, played behind closed doors, coronavirus obliges. Adding magic, the team sealed the privilege on the same day that Paris Saint-Germain celebrated its 50th anniversary. The following night, there was more favorable news for PSG when Leipzig, relatively successful, disappointed Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals, making the French club an undisputed favourite in Tuesday’s semi-final. To melt the excitement, if they win the final, there are only five days left.
Back in Paris, the coronavirus has taken a new foot. The French minister on Friday declared the capital a high-risk area in the fight against the virus.
“All signs show that the virus is actively circulating again in Paris: every day, around six hundred more people test positive for Covid-19 in the [Ile-de-France] region, adding 260 in Paris,” explained the Paris Police Prefecture. Saturday when the launch of a new map dotted with giant spaces where the mask is now mandatory outdoors. “The positive test rate is 4.14% in ParisArray … 2.4% on average nationally,” the prefecture added. The prevalence of infections “intensifies in Paris with more than 51 new cases detected corresponding to 100,000 today, compared to 8 consistent with 100,000 at the beginning of the month …”. He also noted that the spread is worse among people aged 15 to 45 than the other groups, with 52 cases consistent with 100,000.
The new map of Paris describing the required outdoor mask includes a giant component of the city centre (districts 1, 2, 3, 4), as well as the Champs-Elysées. The “most beautiful street in the world” was not on the mandatory mask list when the mask was first followed on some outdoor streets this month. But their inclusion is now a good time; The Champs-Elysées are a place of harvesting herbs for football enthusiasts after a red-printed victory, or even after a big defeat.
Another place of harvesting herbs for Paris Saint-Germain enthusiasts may be the club’s stadium, the Parc des Princes, in the 16th arrondissement. An open organization of PSG enthusiasts, the Ultras Paris Collective, released a video of enthusiastic enthusiasts frantically in front of the team’s empty field in the early hours of Thursday morning, celebrating victory over Atalanta in the red glow of the flares. There is no mask to see in the clip, no social estrangement in the middle of the full throat edge. Parc des Princes is not located in a mandatory outdoor mask area.
“Outside those areas, masked dresses are advised in public spaces as soon as the population becomes dense,” the Paris police prefecture said Saturday. “If the epidemiological scenario deteriorates again, the masked dress may become obligatory in the capital.” Police also said they would intensify inspections of bars, restaurants and their outdoor yards to meet social estrangement and other antiviral measures, or threat closures. “Meetings and occasions of more than ten other people will have to comply with certain [antivirus] barrier measures. They will be prohibited if the organizers cannot secure their implementation,” the prefecture said saturday.
On Monday, the Ultras Paris Collective announced that it would not hold a rally for the semi-final. “Unfortunately, and as in the quarter-finals, we have not discovered any positions that can accommodate our fervor while respecting fitness rules,” the organization said. The motto of the collective is “Together we are invincible”, however, it is clear that you do not have to verify this premise epidemiologically.
Paris Saint-Germain, for its part, points out that in recent weeks it has disseminated video messages of coronavirus prevention with its players on giant internal screens of the friendly matches of the Parc des Princes. They showed, for example, a gigantic Kylian Mbappé that life coughing in the palm of his arm and greeting his companions with elbow controls, an effort to raise awareness and, perhaps, make the opposite combat to Covid-19 great for young and old fans. The club does not organize primary amateur events in Paris or Lisbon for the semi-final, given the coronavirus regulations.
The Paris City Council, when asked about its purpose of taking special measures given the likelihood of spontaneous football demonstrations in the city of the “red zone”, referred to the police prefecture of Paris.
“The police prefecture will launch a preventive action plan on the Champs-Elysées to stumble upon any fan pickup and pay special attention to the venues where the matches of this sporting event will be broadcast,” the prefecture told FRANCE 24 on Monday night of its plan for the PSG-Leipzig semi-final. It did not provide any additional precautions in the Parc des Princes.
Monitored transmission locations
In fact, collecting to celebrate (or sympathize) after the attack is not the only type of dicy meeting in Paris. Tuesday’s semi-final is only available to RMC Sport’s paid TV audience, making the prospect of watching the action a dilemma for many enthusiasts amid the pandemic.
“Covid: Should we see PSG in bars?” So Foot mag asked on Monday. “In absolute terms, what you want to do is put TVs outside,” Dr. Yvon Le Flohic, an epidemiologist who co-authored an open letter to make masking mandatory in all enclosed collective spaces in France, told the football magazine’s website. . “In fact, it is difficult to give a definitive answer. However, the aggravating behaviors are well known: shouting or talking aloud, making a song or screaming aloud, jumping into the neighbor’s arms, forgetting the occasional measures [take off the mask, the washed hand],” Le Flohic added. “The use of a mask actually limits the effects, but I wonder how such a legal liability will be imposed on such an occasion.”
Such considerations at the intersection of football and plague will resonate in the minds of fitness professionals alone in Paris and across the country this week, as new infections in Covid-19 continue to progress nationally.
Lyon enthusiasts will have their own Champions League semi-final on Wednesday, marking the first time two French Ligue 1 clubs have come so far in the same year. Olympique Lyonnais (OL) reached the semi-finals for the first time in a decade on Saturday with two goals from Manchester City. But his semi-definitive opponent, a new Bayern Munich who made it 8-2 against Barcelona, makes OL a more senior player to make Sunday’s final than Paris Saint-Germain. Lyon enthusiasts also don’t have the same safety dilemma as Parisians for their semi-ultimate. Open-air television channel TF1 announced Tuesday that it would broadcast Wednesday’s attack in plain sight. TF1 also has the broadcast rights to Sunday’s Champions League final.
Meanwhile, after a pandemic reduced its 2019-2020 schedule, Ligue 1 will begin its new season on Friday. But the coronavirus has put a key in this work. At least 37 players from 11 other clubs in the main French football league have tested positive in recent weeks, and the vast majority contracted their infections since resumed their studies in June.
On Tuesday morning, Olympique de Marseille (OM) announced that it had 3 more cases shown of Covid-19 among its staff, for a total of 4 in 4 days. OM was to face Saint-Etienne at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille on Friday night for the opening match of the 2020–2021 Ligue 1 season, but those cases have happened differently. At noon on Tuesday, the game was postponed.
The city of Marseille, such as Paris, is in a red zone while cases of coronavirus increase. The club had requested a special exemption to allow 20,000 spectators to enter its 67,000-seat stadium for The opening match of Ligue 1 on Friday, but the local government rejected the request. Last week, Prime Minister Jean Castex extended the national ban on meetings of more than 5,000 people until 30 October.
After a weekend that saw two consecutive days with more than 3,000 new infections consistent with the day, France’s seven-day moving average stood at 2322 on Monday. With an average of more than 2,000 new infections for the fourth day in a row, Reuters reports, France is experiencing a series noticed since April 20.
The question of whether football plays a role in expanding those numbers before the critical back-to-school era falls to enthusiasts. Will young enthusiasts eager for victory after years of sadness be wary of coronaviruses? Will Parisians be tempted in the summer holidays to come home a little earlier to take part in the festivities? Stay tuned.