French sports clubs faced with jostled calendars

Beyond the announcement of a return of reduced spectator gauges in sports arenas for three weeks from January 3 and its financial consequences, another part of the health crisis worries officials of professional leagues and clubs in France: management of Covid-19 cases within the workforce.

The “tidal wave” of the Omicron variant has not spared the sports community, which has been facing the proliferation of positive cases for several weeks. And, consequently, to postponements of matches.

The situation could quickly turn into a puzzle. Particularly because the competition calendars are not so flexible. Certain clubs must, moreover, be present on two counts: at the national level and at the European level, with the European cups.

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Different health protocols

Latest case to date: the Euroleague meeting – the European basketball championship – between Asvel and Bayern Munich. Scheduled for Thursday, December 30 at the Astroballe in Villeurbanne (Rhône), it was postponed to a later date due to the large number of positive cases for Covid-19 within the Rhone workforce. “We are a cluster”, sums up the club’s deputy president, Gaëtan Müller.

The problem had already arisen, a few days earlier, during the match against Limoges CSP, this time in the framework of the 14e day of the French championship. But Asvel’s postponement requests had received a disqualification from the National Basketball League (LNB).

This is one of the characteristics of this crisis: health protocols differ according to the sports and, within the same sport, according to the competitions.

In basketball, for example, if Euroleague provides for the possibility of a postponement when a team has less than eight able-bodied players “Because one or more of them have tested positive”, the LNB does not allow it only if a club is unable to present at least seven players and a coach due to Covid-19.

In volleyball, according to the rules of the National League (LNV), it is from three cases of Covid-19 that a formation can ask to postpone a meeting. Four games of the 14e League A day could not be held on December 29, and two matches of the 15e day, January 4, have already been canceled.

“Very few postponement dates”

It takes eleven players, including a goalie, and at least six professionals for a match to be held ”, explains Nodjialem Myaro, president of the Women’s Handball League, for whom the management of positive cases promises to “More problematic” than that of the gauge.

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