French Football Federation Ends League & District Football
The Executive Committee of the French Football Federation (FFF), has decided to put an end to all the competitions of Leagues, Districts, national championships of National 3, National 2, D2 women and futsal, and national youth championships (female and male) in the country.
The news comes as the French government ruled out the resumption of all sport, including behind closed doors, until September with strict lockdown measures imposed across the country until 11th May in response to the continued fight against the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen football postponed in France since 13th March.
The FFF hoped for a resumption of competitions but following broad consultation with players, their representative organisations, the Leagues and Districts to determine a harmonised solution with terms for stopping fair competitions throughout the territory. At the end of this phase of exchanges and studies, the Executive Committee of the FFF took the decision to stop the competitions of Leagues and Districts with the following conditions:
– a stoppage of competitions on March 13 (date of suspension of competitions) regardless of the number of games played.
– the fixing of the rankings according to the quotient number of points obtained / number of matches played in order to neutralize the effect of the postponed matches.
– the division of clubs on equal points according to the rules of the competition concerned. If the competition rules are inoperative or do not allow the tiebreaker, criteria set by the Federation will be applied.
– the limitation of the number of descents to one per hen, in line with the regulations which provide for the impossibility of recovering the last whatever the circumstances.
– fixing the number of climbs according to the regulations which prevail for the competition concerned.
Concerning the National 1 and the D1 Arkema women’s championship, the FFF Executive Committee, which wants a harmonized treatment of the high female and male level, decided to continue the reflection in favour of a possible recovery taking into account the specific nature of these two competitions.
At present, the possibility of postponing the calendar for these two competitions from June makes it possible to envisage a resumption. The sporting challenge of the end of the season for National 1, with the entry barriers to the professional world in L2, and that of the D1 Arkema with the principle of qualification for European UEFA competitions, also takes part in this reflection.
The semi-finals and the final of the Women’s French Cup as well as the final of the Men’s French Cup will also soon be rescheduled depending on health conditions.
The FFF Executive Committee will announce in the coming days a plan to support amateur football and its 14,000 clubs in order to support their restart next season and to facilitate the reception of our licensees, in particular the most young of them.
Image: PA Images
