PARIS, 18 Aug (Reuters) – The start of the new Ligue 1 season was postponed from Friday night after Olympique de Marseille said it had shown 4 instances of COVID-19, France’s governing body, the LFP, said on Tuesday.
“In view of the medical effects transmitted through Olympique de Marseille (…) the LFP has to postpone the Marseille/AS Saint-Etienne Olympic adjustment until 16 or 17 September,” the LFP said in a statement.
The setting is the only one scheduled for Friday, with the rest of the first circular of ligue 1 of the 2020/21 fites spread between Saturday and Sunday.
The LFP told clubs last week that it had set up a “COVID committee” to advise on whether to postpone matches. When a club reports more than 3 cases of coronavirus, it is likely that the “COVID protocol” that the PSL has sent to the clubs is postponed.
Among the “Big Five” of European football nations, France is the only one to finish its season prematurely due to the pandemic. Paris St Germain won the Ligue 1 title.
The Paris club and Olympique Lyonnais have the champions league semi-finals reformed in red, the first time two French groups will face others at this level. Olympique de Marseille is the only French winner of the biggest prize in European football.
Almost 40 players from 11 of Ligue 1’s 20 clubs tried COVID-19, and some in Saint-Etienne.
Spaniard Mediapro, who owns the broadcast rights to ligue 1’s most productive matches for the 2020/2021 to 2023/2024 seasons, agreed in early June with TF1, France’s largest personal television operator, to shape a new channel to broadcast the most productive Ligue 1 league matches in the country. (Report through Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten; edited through John Stonestreet and Hugh Lawson)