The judge of summary measures “validates the end of the season and the classification but suspends the relegations”, it is written in a press release.
The Council of State suspended Tuesday relegation to Ligue 2 of Amiens and Toulouse, and rejected the appeal brought by Lyon to resume the 2019-2020 season stopped against the coronavirus, validating the final ranking decided by the Football League professional (LFP). The judge of urgent procedures (emergency procedures) “validates the end of the season and the classification but suspends the relegations”, it is written in a press release summarizing this much awaited ordinance.
The magistrate also enjoins the LFP, in connection with the French Federation (FFF), to re-examine, by June 30, 2020, the question of the format of Ligue 1 for the next exercise, which could be played by 22 teams instead of 20 currently. The supreme administrative court ruled in favor of the clubs of Amiens and Toulouse, who contested an “arbitrary” and “unfair” demotion, while they had nine days left to try to stay on the grounds.
Defeat for Lyon
But for Lyon, who demanded the resumption of the season or, failing that, a “white season” renewing European qualifications from the previous year, it was a defeat. The judge validated the decision to stop the Championship adopted by the LFP Board of Directors on April 30, as well as the final classification, decided according to a performance index.
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OL President Jean-Michel Aulas publicly defended the possibility of resuming the interrupted exercise, through play-offs, while Italy, Germany, England and Spain have resumed or are going to do it. The Council of State also condemned the Lyonnais club to pay 3000 euros to the LFP for procedural costs. If he validated the order of the final classification, the judge in summary emphasized that it was not automatic to carry out demotions.
“The decision to proceed to a classification of the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 Championships does not necessarily lead, by itself, to the relegation to Ligue 2 of the last two of the Ligue 1 championship, either, moreover, than the accession to Ligue 1 of the first two of Ligue 2, “he wrote in the order. The relegation of the two clubs also entails a “serious and immediate attack” on their interests, notes the judge.
French football turned upside down
This decision is likely to upset French football, while the president of the FFF Noël Le Graët had set out to enforce the climbs and descents in each division, both professional and amateur.
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The ball is now in the hands of the LFP which, in conjunction with the FFF, must review the format of the next season of L1. At the heart of the debate, the convention which links the two bodies and which rules out, for the 2019-2020 season, the possibility of a Championship at 22.
“The convention currently in force, which ends on June 30, 2020, does not govern the 2020-2021 season” and “will no longer be applicable for the 2020-2021 season,” said the judge.
