If the Covid-19 will cost professional football sums still impossible to quantify, the Niort club (Ligue 2) already knows a very small part of the price: three points lost on the green carpet for refusing to receive Valenciennes on December 22. Hard to cash on the side of Deux-Sèvres where it is explained to have applied the precautionary principle in the face of a multiplication of cases of Covid-19 in the workforce. The Professional Football League (LFP) does not understand it that way and gave a lost match (0-3) on the green carpet. The club was not “able to provide the medical monitoring certificates of its sports delegation for the match in question,” she explained in a statement.
For several days, the Niortais deplored three positive cases and estimated that nine players and three staff members were in contact. Under these conditions the holding of the match seemed uncertain. A few hours before the meeting, even though Valenciennes was already there, Niort decided to cancel the meeting. “After consultation between the club doctor and that of the LFP, and in view of the development of the health situation within its workforce, Chamois Niortais FC, in agreement with the Professional Football League, decided to cancel the match ”, specified the club in a press release from the club on December 22.
The LFP registered Niort’s request but asked for the sending, “within the legal deadlines”, of medical certificates attesting that the club could possibly be deprived of twelve players.
“It seems inhuman like that but the regulations exist”
The club did not send these certificates on time, a priori those concerning possible contact cases. The LFP, in strict application of its regulations, therefore gave him a lost match. “It seems inhuman like that but the regulations exist, we whisper to the LFP. If Valenciennes wanted to challenge the postponement, he would have won. “
Niort however defends himself by explaining that he did not invent the contact cases so as not to face Valenciennes: several players and staff members tested positive for Covid at the time of the resumption in early January. And Niort also deprived himself of two players and his coach, Sébastien Desabre, Tuesday in Rodez (1-1). The latter was part of the contact cases on December 22.
Through the voice of its sports director Mikaël Hanouna, the club has decided to appeal this decision. “We take note. We are condemned for being overly cautious. From now on, we know what we have to do, ”explained the latter in La Nouvelle République.
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