No sport in France until September

[Heathen]

Full statement :

CORONAVIRUS: STATUS POINT FOLLOWING THE MEETING OF THE LNR BUREAU AND THE TOP 14ET PRO D2 PARIS PRESIDENTS, APRIL 30, 2020

The Office of the National Rugby League and the TOP 14 and PRO D2 Club Presidents met yesterday The President of the LNR presented the different options following the announcement of measures specific to sporting events included in the deconfinement plan presented by the Prime Minister to the National Assembly after consultation with the Presidents of TOP 14 Clubs. and PRO D2, the Bureau will propose to the LNR Steering Committee not to follow up on scenario 2 which provided for the organization of Final Phases at the end of August to close the 2019-2020 season, to pronounce the end of this 2019-2020 season, and to focus on the organization of the launch of the 2020-2021 editions of the two championships from September 2020.

The meeting that took place this morning with the Minister of Sports, the National Rugby League will present in the coming days to the Ministry of Sports its proposal for medical protocol, re-athletics, preparation in view of the preparation of the 2020-2021 championships in strict compliance with the health guidelines set by the public authorities. The date of the National Rugby League's Steering Committee, which will be convened at the end of this process, will be fixed in the coming days.

PRESS CONTACT-Thibault Brugeron –thibault.brugeron @ lnr.fr – 01 55 07 87 51 PRESS RELEASE

[DGP Wasp]

With the European knockout stages now pushed back to September at the earliest I am starting to believe more and more that this situation will be used to shift all NH competitions to the summer.  The question of transition has always been a big stumbling block for this move which World Rugby clearly favours.  Now it can be presented as a solution rather than a problem.

Talk of a return to playing even behind closed doors in any professional sport before August/September still seems pie in the sky.  Just a return to full contact training is still a long way off, and players will need minimum 4-6 weeks training before they can return to playing competitively after that.

It would not surprise me in the least if the leagues play out the remainder of the current season towards the end of the year, followed by a close season at the turn of the year then 2021 and subsequent seasons to run between March and October or thereabouts.