With what squad will the Girondins de Bordeaux play their round of 16 scheduled for this Sunday (1:45 p.m.) at the Francis-Le Blé stadium in Brest? Severely affected by the virus, the group of Vladimir Petkovic is, according to the club, unable to sportingly defend its chances in this clash between Ligue 1 teams. Bordeaux’s request for postponement not being admissible in view of the protocol health of the FFF updated at the beginning of the month, the club and its president denounce this situation in a press release sent on Thursday.
“Why want to maintain – at all costs – the holding of this Coupe de France meeting when 16 of our players are placed in solitary confinement? What are the real reasons for this? Especially since these are two teams not competing in the European Cup … From how many positive cases in one and the same team should we consider that sporting fairness is threatened? 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? How far will the ridicule end? “
Like many clubs in France and Europe, Bordeaux is bearing the brunt of the current proliferation of the number of positive cases linked to Covid-19. The club specifies that “21 players – including 16 placed in solitary confinement – are unavailable for reasons related to Covid”. We should therefore draw on the reserve or the youth teams.
The leaders, who requested the postponement of the match, come up against the sanitary protocol of the Federation and its article 3.3.3 which stipulates that “given the calendar of the event, no postponement can be considered, the club being in the inability to present a team in accordance with the regulations of the event and the general regulations of the FFF on the day of the match, is forfeited. »
“At this stage of the pandemic, we can no longer take any risk and we must protect everyone’s health as much as possible,” intervenes Gérard Lopez, the president of the Girondins (…) It seems clear that the virus will affect the vast majority of people. clubs in the coming weeks. It is therefore essential to preserve the sporting interest of the competition and to take into account the fact that the teams cannot be subjected to this health hazard which distorts the situation. To this day, we continue to dialogue with the FFF to consider the best possible solutions in order to avoid offering a show that would not be worthy of the Coupe de France ”.
