The women’s football D1 summit meeting between Olympique Lyonnais (OL) and Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG), initially scheduled for Saturday March 13 at 9 p.m., has been postponed due to several positive cases of Covid-19 among Parisiennes, announced the French Football Federation (FFF) on Friday.
“On the recommendation of the Ile-de-France regional health agency”, it was decided to postpone this meeting, according to the FFF, organizer of the French women’s D1 championship currently dominated by the Parisians, one point ahead of the Lyonnaises, title holders.
A few minutes before this announcement, the Paris-SG had let it be known that “Three of his players have tested positive for Covid-19”, as well as a member of the staff, on the eve of the shock of the D1. In the evening, OL said to themselves “Disappointed with the lack of transparency” of the PSG. The director of football of the Rhone club, Vincent Ponsot, said he hoped the Parisian club “Did not use this agency [l’agence régionale de santé] for “Choose” your calendar “.
The capital club did not wish to reveal the identity of the people concerned, while the coach, Olivier Echouafni, had however, a little earlier, assured at a press conference that his group was ” full “.
“Why the FFF did not cancel the match against Switzerland after Eugenie tested positive [Le Sommer] ? “, asked the Lyon goalkeeper, Sarah Bouhaddi, on Twitter, in reference to the positive test of her partner before a friendly match of the France team at the end of February, maintained.
Possible confrontation in C1
In theory, the postponement is not considered “Only if four or more players” are affected, according to the FFF protocol. But she said she had to comply with the recommendations of the ARS, which prevented PSG from moving to Lyon on Saturday. A trip initially planned by train.
If the date of the rescheduling of the meeting has not been set for the moment, it may come after the possible double confrontation between the two teams in the Champions League, due to a too busy schedule before, explained the FFF. OL and PSG must indeed face each other in the quarter-finals of the C1 on March 23 or 24 then March 31 or 1er April, provided that PSG validates its qualification for the quarter-finals, well under way after its 5-0 victory in the first leg against Prague.
This eighth-final second leg, scheduled for Wednesday in the Czech Republic, is it threatened? UEFA regulations are more flexible on the issue: according to its protocol, the body can authorize the postponement of a match “If less than 13 players registered in the official list or no goalkeeper are available”.
With 43 points against 42 for OL players, PSG hopes to win their first French women’s D1 title, building on their success in the first leg this fall (1-0).
