The 2019-2020 Ligue 1 season was officially stopped on April 30 by the Professional Football League’s Board of Directors, which followed government instructions. We will not see matches in France for many weeks but a player has not known the pitch since February, while the championship was suspended in early March.
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Expelled during the match between Nîmes Olympique and AS Monaco on February 1 (defeat 3-1), Gelson Martins was given a very heavy suspension. The Portuguese winger, author of a bloodshed on referee M. Lesage, including a stroller, had not been spared by the League, which had decided to impose a suspension of six months. But with the Covid-19 pandemic and the suspension of competitions, Gelson Martins was one of the “beneficiaries” of this very special situation.
“An inequitable situation” for the FFF
However, the French Football Federation has decided otherwise. In the minutes of the last Executive Committee, held on Monday, the FFF was very clear about the players who received a suspension, a few matches or several months. “The permanent cessation of competitions generates an inequitable situation between on the one hand, the licensees currently suspended in number of matches, (…) On the other hand, the licensees currently being suspended in time”, first explains the FFF.
Before giving your decision: “The period from March 13, 2020 to June 30, 2020 will not be included in the purging of any time suspension, regardless of its quantum and regardless of the date on which it was pronounced, when the execution of the suspension was to take place, in whole or in part, during the said period. Thus for such a suspension, the purge will begin on July 1, 2020 or restart from July 1, 2020 for the duration of the suspension which remained to be served on March 13, 2020. “ After serving about five weeks of suspension, Gelson Martins will be absent until the end of November.
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