Ubuesque. French professional rugby is preparing to emerge this weekend from the five and a half months of artificial coma in which it was plunged following the suspension of sports competitions, collateral victims of the coronavirus. And the party begins with a match postponed this Friday, because of the pandemic. While it will close on Sunday in an Auvergne stadium to which a magnanimous prefect has granted an exemption, so that 10,000 spectators can take place. So, not even resuscitated yet, the Top 14 is walking: on the edge of the precipice.
The aborted opening in question was to oppose the French Stadium to Bordeaux. Bad luck, the Parisian club was self-propelled champion of France of the cluster. He returned from an internship in Nice at the beginning of August with twenty-seven members, players and staff combined, tested positive for the coronavirus, some also presenting lung lesions.
A massacre in which nine of the eleven frontline players appear, making it de facto impossible to hold the match, knowing that the club had also not been able to carry out any preparatory meeting. Nothing smoky, the opponent of the day, Bordeaux, will only have to watch Canal + … And continue to ruminate on a championship that ended up fishtail in the spring, while prancing at the head of the regular season.
A season itself a little ghastly since affected by the World Cup and then by the Six Nations Tournament which, for long weeks, had deprived the best teams (in the lead, Toulouse, defending French champion) of all their internationals , French as well as foreigners. But the Covid has therefore (morally?) Settled everything and, the season shortened, has provided neither winner nor vanquished.
Economic equation
A few months and many cogitations later, we take the same ones and we start again, somehow, according to the medical bulletins showing positive checks here and there (Lyon, Agen, Montpellier, Racing 92), praying so that they do not sabotage the frail skiff on which French rugby now sails. “The situation may remain complicated for a long time and we all start out on an equal footing in the face of the pandemic. It’s a challenge that turns each match into a priority challenge, while waiting for the next one, with, as a keyword, adaptability ”, Jono Gibbes, New Zealand manager of Stade Rochelais, philosophized at a press conference on Thursday.
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The sporting challenge is superimposed on an economic equation not recommended for migraine sufferers. Because, unlike football, which derives most of its income from TV rights and trading (the sale of players, abroad in this case), rugby, on average, relies on average two-thirds on life at home. stadium, through partnership and ticketing revenue – TV rights weighing only about 20%. “The situation is worrying, Thomas Lombard, director general of the Stade français (and his counterparts, in unison) told AFP at the end of May. The worst is the closed door or the partial gauge of 5,000 spectators maximum, because that cuts us from almost all of our income. ”
“The certainty of uncertainty”
At the twilight of summer, the smile returns. But circumspection has not gone away. “The only certainty is uncertainty”, observes Jacky Lorenzetti, President of Racing 92, on the eve of the resumption of “Covid-14”, where a “Terrible desire to do battle on the ground” counterbalanced by the cold sweat of the calculator. Its (indoor) stadium, the Paris la Défense Arena, is based on an economic model combining sport and entertainment on a very large scale. However, all the musical tours are in dry dock and rugby is preparing to make a living at home, in a club which employs a hundred people and is based on a budget of 28 million euros.
“I have 30,000 places and the prefecture authorizes me 5,000 because we are in the red zone [alors qu’à Clermont, Michelin sera plus qu’à moitié plein, dimanche, pour recevoir Toulouse, ndlr]. However, we presented a concrete case a month and a half ago, with particulate filters to keep the virus out, increased ventilation flow, etc. ” Nada. So Jacky Lorenzetti gives himself “A month to see more clearly”, also hoping that the representatives of the League and the Top 14 moved the government. At the beginning of the week they went to beg the Prime Minister’s chief of staff for significant aid, such as exemption from social charges.
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All this in a petaudière where it is also necessary to finish the 2019-2020 European Cups interrupted at the quarter-finals stage, then to play those of the 2020-2021 vintage in a new formula (more teams, fewer matches – to the point confusion where we are …). But we must also stand up to the demands of the XV of France which must also complete its 2020 Tournament and above all wants to investigate the test-matches (thus sequester the internationals) in order to bail out empty coffers (against the backdrop of a tense election for the presidency of the Federation in early October). And restore the image of a sport tarnished by a new death of a player (amateur) on a field, August 29 in Saint-Gaudens, even though the autopsy performed would have concluded to an “innate cardiac abnormality”. May the best win. As far as we can reach a final – June 26, 2021, for information – which has never seemed so far away.
Gilles Renault
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