The controversy swells between the French Football Federation and the Girondins de Bordeaux. A few days before the trip scheduled for Sunday on the lawn of the Stade Brestois, the Bordeaux club reveals this Thursday in a press release that “twenty-one players are unavailable for reasons related to Covid”.
“A worrying situation which raises a number of questions” (Gérard Lopez)
“Why do you want to maintain – at all costs – the holding of this Coupe de France meeting”, asks Gérard Lopez, the president of the Girondins de Bordeaux before asking “how far will the ridiculous end”. “From how many positive cases in one and the same team should we consider that sporting equity is threatened?”
“Why is the French Football Federation not showing more flexibility?”
In a tangy press release, the Girondins de Bordeaux call for “to preserve the sporting interest of the Coupe de France”. Gérard Lopez recalls that “the Top 14 have just refined their sanitary protocol”, the boss of the Bordeaux club regrets half-heartedly that the French Football Federation does not do the same: why “Isn’t she showing more flexibility on this specific issue?”
“Can we rejoice in the positive image of the Coupe de France when a professional club travels with a group made up of a majority of players from its reserve team?” (Gérard Lopez)
“Unfortunately” no favorable response to the FFF
“Unfortunately, all these questions have not – for the moment – found a favorable echo with the federal authority”, deplores the Bordeaux leader.
Claiming to want “protect everyone’s health as much as possible“, Gérard Lopez believes”essential to preserve the sporting interest “ of the Coupe de France. “At this stage of the pandemic”, the president of the Girondins calls once again to “take into account the fact that the teams cannot be subjected to this health hazard which distorts the situation”.
Three days before the trip to Brest, the president of the Girondins de Bordeaux indicates that dialogue continues with the FFF “to consider the best possible solutions in order to avoid offering a spectacle that would not be worthy of the Coupe de France”.