The Decisions of French football league (LFP) to end the 2019-2020 season and relegate two clubs stand; Paris Administrative Court has rejected the appeals of Lyon, Amiens and Toulouse which sought to reverse the decisions.
Recall that the LFP decided to end the season in France when the country’s government announced that sporting activities would not be allowed in the country until after September.
LFP agreed to use points-per-game basis to decide who wins the two major divisions of the league after some teams had played 27 matches and others 28. Paris Saint Germain that was topping the league table with 12 points before coronavirus pandemic halted the football season, was crowned the league’s champions.
Lyon felt the club would have qualified for a European competition if LFP did not use points-per-game basis to decide who wins the two major divisions. With 10 games remaining for the club that was at the 7th position on the league table, the possibility of making it to a European spot was high, hence, the club decided to drag LFP to court to reverse the decision.
In the case of Amiens and Toulouse, the clubs believe it was not justifiable for them to be relegated after a season that was not completed. They wanted the court to order LFP to make the Ligue 1 a 22-club league instead of relegating them to the second division. However, LFP insisted that only the second division would have 22 clubs.
“The LFP was pleased to learn that the appeals lodged by Olympique Lyonnais, Amiens SC and Toulouse FC were rejected by the summary judgment of the Paris Administrative Court,” the LFP said in a statement.
“In three orders issued on Friday afternoon, the court ruled that the general decisions taken by the League’s board of directors on 30 April could only be challenged before the State Council, which is competent to hear regulatory decisions taken by national authorities such as the LFP.”
PSG striker Kylian Mbappe was crowned the highest goal scorer of the league with 18 goals. While Monaco striker Wissam Ben Yedder was not given the same accolade despite scoring the same number of goals with the PSG man. This was not however contested in court but it attracted more criticism to French football and Lyon asserted that football in the country was heading towards the wrong direction.
