Lyon is still not happy that French league has ended prematurely causing them to lose the chance of playing in the Champions League next season. The club said in a statement that French football is moving in the wrong direction since football authorities allowed such a decision to still stand.
Football governing body in France decided to cut short the 2019-2020 season completely when government authorities in the country directed that there should be no sporting activities in France until September due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Among all the sporting activities in France, French Ligue 1 was the first and indeed the only sporting event in the country that has reacted outrightly to the directive by ending the league and declaring Paris Saint Germain the champion.
PSG was topping the league table with 12 points before the pandemic forced the season to a halt. Though there are at least 9 matches remaining for the season to end, football authorities in France concluded that there was no point trying to wait until September to complete the season.
Lyon offers Alternative
The football authorities 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. This method used to end the league made Lyon finish seventh on the league table, thereby ruling the club out from any form of UEFA tournaments next season. Hence, Lyon believes that there should be a better alternative to this method.
“It was therefore quite possible to envisage another scenario allowing the championship to end in August, for example with a play-off system, subject of course to the development of the health situation and while respecting the instructions given by the government”, Lyon says in a statement retrieved from the club’s website.
“Olympique Lyonnais continues to think that French football is currently moving in the wrong direction but that it may not be too late to try to imagine, in the light of what is happening everywhere in Europe, something that is coherent in political, health and sports terms.
“The league took this premature decision which penalises in sporting and economic terms a large number of French clubs while other institutions have done everything possible to ensure that their events which are part of the heritage of French sport.”
