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OM | OM caught up in camera

From cycling to rugby to football, French sport is not immune to government measures taken to limit the risks of the spread of the Covid-19. No more than sporting events organized outside of France. Sunday evening, after a limited defense and security council at the Élysée Palace, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced a ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people, including outside, until to April 15.

“In this period, behind closed doors can become our doctrine concerning organizational methods”, said the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu, yesterday at a press conference, to respond to this new health directive. “The organizers must adapt to the new rules with this gauge of 1000 people by counting the participants or by preferring the closed”, she further developed, recalling that “the sports world must participate in this collective effort”.

OM are obviously concerned. The first decision fell yesterday about the trip to Montpellier, Saturday afternoon (5.30 p.m.), on behalf of the 29th day of Ligue 1: the Hérault prefecture told MHSC leaders in the middle of the day that the meeting would take place without any spectator. Initially allowed to move to La Mosson, with a quota of 600 places, Marseille supporters are no longer allowed to go there. “All these measures are subject to the prefects’ decisions”, also made a point of specifying the Minister of Sports during her press briefing. Depending on the case, like the Strasbourg-PSG match scheduled for last Saturday in the Bas-Rhin, a cluster declared of the epidemic, the latter have all the latitude to choose to postpone events.

What about the reception of PSG?

“We don’t play with health, estimated André Villas-Boas, the Olympian coach, Friday evening, after the draw of his team against Amiens (2-2). I’m not an expert, but we can’t take this lightly. The best example is Italy. If you close the Louvre for 5,000 people, you must close a stadium. It’s my opinion.”

OM is therefore there. For the moment, three other meetings of the Olympian club are in the viewfinder of the restrictions: the displacement in Brest, April 5, the coming of Dijon, the weekend of April 11, but it is especially the reception of PSG, next March 22, which crystallizes attention and carries questions. A poster of the championship which is played regularly in front of a packed Velodrome stadium (between 55 and 65,000 supporters over the last 20 years) and which, in all likelihood, should not pass through the camera.

But if no decision has been made yet, this trend is not really to the taste of Marseille supporters. Some of them have trouble grasping the interest of such measures while others want to know how they will be reimbursed for the places already purchased. Not to mention those who counted on the arrival of Neymar and Co. to resell their places at exorbitant prices …

Asked to comment on the situation, OM still prefer to wait before communicating on the subject. Another meeting is also scheduled today in Paris between the various players in French sport (federations, professional leagues, TV broadcasters, private organizers) in order to recall the instructions, measure their economic impact and define the methods of compensation, in particular. All clubs will then be informed. Case (s) to follow.

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