It's a bit like the Don Quixote of lost causes when you happen to talk about sport at the Palais du Luxembourg. Michel Savin, Senator LR from Isère promised to table an amendment as soon as possible to change the government's position on the gauge to 5,000 people in outdoor stadiums (2,000 indoors), gauge announced by the Prime Minister for the month January as part of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. No false hopes, the president of the study group Sporting practices and major sporting events in the Senate has no illusions about the outcome of the fight:
“In general, it is the Minister of Health who answers me and rejects my proposal with arguments that I cannot understand. I thought common sense would eventually prevail, but I see not. We continue to think that putting 5,000 people in a stadium that can hold 5,000 where people are on top of each other is the same as in a stadium with 50,000 or 60,000 seats. Let's trust local officials, whether it's the state or the clubs, who have been thinking for two years about how to welcome the public in the best possible sanitary conditions.
The same reasoning despite scientific studies
It's like being back in the summer of 2020, when the stadium managers of L1 or the top 14 were tweaking their brains to convince the government to increase the gauge to 40 or 50% at the start of the school year. “We have been trying to work with my colleagues from other clubs for a while to answer a whole host of logistical and health questions, then confided to 20 Minutes Xavier Pierrot, stadium manager of Olympique Lyonnais. We know, for example, that it will be easier to manage a certain influx for larger stadiums than for small enclosures, the same for stadiums with more access doors and diversified means of transport.
It was well worth curdling: 18 months later, government thinking has not changed an inch. This famous gauge of 5,000 spectators corresponds in fact to the definition of a public event requiring a prior declaration to the prefecture. In 18 months, however, science has greatly evolved in its understanding of the transmission of the virus, regardless of the variant concerned. Thus the theory of original sin, namely the famous epidemiological bomb constituted by the meeting between Atalanta Bergamo and Valencia in the round of 16 of the Champions League in February 2020, has since been largely amended by experts.
The 4m2 gauge immediately forgotten
“At that time, there were not yet barrier gestures or masks, but it was especially during the 3rd half in the bars that people were mainly contaminated, not necessarily in the stadium, we recently explained epidemiologist Antoine Flahault. So far, the best exteriors are mediums diluting the particles, therefore not very conducive to the spread of the virus”. No scientific study has yet identified an increased risk of contamination during outdoor sporting events. Emmanuel Macron himself implicitly recognized this in November 2020, when he received players from the sports world at the Elysée.
The Minister for Sports Roxana Maracineau was at the time delighted in our columns with the adoption of the principle of a gauge adapted to the percentage of the enclosure rather than an absolute figure: "The resident noted that this return will be done from next year, taking into account a relative gauge, on a perimeter of distance from each other. The track of a spectator every 4 m2 was mentioned, that is to say the distance with the wearing of the mask and the respect of the gestures barriers ”. A good resolution immediately forgotten, like all the others, because of the arrival of the Delta variant.
It took until June 2021 and the friendly match between France and Bulgaria to see 5,000 people at the Stade de France. 5,000 people all gathered from the same platform, as during the first meeting in the world after between Le Havre and PSG in July 2020, which did not fail to make observers smile yellow. “I hear the need to take measures in view of the epidemic situation [208,000 cases on December 29 according to Olivier Véran], but if it is to put people in the same place, sighs Michel Savin … Especially since with the vaccination pass which will be put in place in the coming days and the wearing of the compulsory mask, we could evoke gauges at an acceptable percentage. But I don't know how much sport weighs in the discussions that take place.
Les décisions du @gouvernementFR sont destinées à protéger et endiguer la double vague. Je salue la responsabilité et la résilience du monde sportif qui peut être fier d’avoir contribué à la vaccination massive des Français. Tenons 3 semaines ensemble.
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Supporters lost to the cause?
An anorexic guinea pig at best, even if Jean-Michel Blanquer, the minister responsible for Roxana Maracineanu, will certainly retort that the State has taken its part, with more than 100 million euros paid as ticketing compensation to professional clubs in 2020 and 2021. A financial air cushion which certainly explains the rather passive attitude of the players since the government announcements. However, the latter, busy counting their losses for January – a small thought for OL which was to receive PSG and ASSE sold out – should know that if the executive does not soften to order gauges with quirky logic , he is much less quick to change his mind afterwards.
Après deux mois de répit à l’été 2020, l’État avait décidé d’un retour à huis clos pour toute la saison dernière sans jamais remettre le sujet sur le tapis. Ainsi, quand on entend Luka Karabatic « se consoler en disant que malgré tout 2.000 personnes pour assister aux matchs de préparation pour l’Euro de hand, ce n’est pas rien, même si la communion avec le public pour notre retour des JO tombe à l’eau », on se dit que le lien avec les fans – pas les abrutisqui mettent le boxon, hein – va finir par casser à force de se distendre. Ainsi, sur les réseaux sociaux, ils sont nombreux à se demander pourquoi ils ont joué le jeu du vaccin si c’est pour finir privés de dessert sur le canapé du salon dès qu’un variant apparaît, ce qui semble nous pendre au nez dans les années qui viennent.
A probably prolonged measure
The worst in it? The tricolor handball players may not be the worst off in the end. It's a matter of days before we realize that the Six Nations tournament, for example, can certainly only take place behind closed doors, and that we're lucky if 5,000 pequins can get to the Parc des Princes to the first leg against Real Madrid in mid-February.
Although it does not play much. It might have been enough for the President of the Republic to love PSG as much as he loves tennis: during the last Roland-Garros, a life-saving phone call from the Elysée had enabled the dantesque semi-final between Nadal and Djokovic to go to his term in the presence of the public despite the curfew. OM in the Europa League conference is sure to be less sexy.
SportCovid-19 : Le retour des jauges entraîne le report du combat Yoka-Bakole0commentaire99partages
