Why you still won't have to go to the stadium after May 19

1. SOFOOT.com
2. // France // Ligue 1

A long-awaited announcement, requested. Without much effect given the calendar of Ligue 1. And in any case, this reopening of the counters will be carried out in a very reduced way, and thereafter with controls. If we understand the hopes of the clubs and the frustration of the enthusiasts, sincerely, isn't it better to wait still for a real return, a real reunion, rather than accepting this formula which smacks more of political half-measures than genuine rocker?

By Nicolas Kssis-Martov80 REACTIONSShow rightShow bottomFACEBOOKTWITTERWhy you still won't have to go to the stadium after May 19 The president has spoken. Announcing, with one eye fixed on the electoral calendar, a deconfinement plan in several stages, which will therefore also normally allow the return of the public to sports arenas, and therefore football stadiums. From May 19, 1000 privileged people will therefore in principle have the right to attend matches, whatever they are, and if an exemption from the curfew is granted to them, at Bauer or at the Vélodrome (which obviously does not will not have the same impact given the size of the infrastructure). For the second phase, from June 9 (the championships will be finished), still under the conditions of the departmental estimate of the pandemic, a gauge of 5000 spectators maximum will be established and a health pass (vaccine or PCR test of less than 72 hours) required to access the bleachers. With the dream then, for the recovery, to return to a normal life. Studying this agenda, it will be above all the reopening of bars and the evolution of the curfew which will constitute the main vector of a recollectivization of popular passion around the round ball, at least that of the elite (we are thinking in particular of the euro).

Refusing the numerus clausus

In short, this is what it is possible to vaguely anticipate for the coming weeks. After months of abstention, and rejoicing for the amateurs that things are settling, even if their season also turns out to be ruined, it is nevertheless difficult to vibrate or to feel any liberating thrill. Should we go there? The doubt is insidious, however the question deserves to be asked. For the ultras. For the average supporters. For the guy. Individually or even nationally. Should we abandon all our values, everything that works our entrails and stop our heart for a few seconds when we cross the gates and turnstiles? Why fight to belong to this happy few of a thousand privileged people who will be able to attend the final of the Coupe de France in situ? What will the latter gain? And then ? What will be the evolutions of the gauges? Entry requirements? The holding of Euro 2021 and the Tokyo Olympics also shows to what extent the public remains a sensitive issue, squeezed between economic demands, a festive dimension and the truth of the statistics of the pandemic.

Patience, mother of all virtues

No one will bother to know if such and such a provision is really justified. That's not the debate. History has caught up with us in the West, and for the record, epidemics lasted two centuries in the Middle Ages. Specialists and epidemiologists whisper a discourse infinitely less optimistic than the Coué method of the government which, as we can see, is now above all trying to take the middle path of "social acceptability". On the other hand, it does not strip us of our freedom to refuse these half measures, and what they mean. On the occasion of the unfinished crisis of the Superleague, speeches had multiplied among politicians, coaches, players, certain clubs, including among the now contrite offenders (Liverpool style), to admit the importance and recognize, finally some will say, the essential role of fans, supporters and other lovers of their colors. Logically, nothing would turn out to be worse than believing, or letting people believe, that scattering a few hundred lucky people in empty cathedrals with 30,000 or 50,000 seats changes the situation. If football is to regain its atmosphere, its popular dimension in real life, it is better that the "shock" is complete. If football is to help us recompose a new ordinary life, it cannot do so with the logic of a life-size "test". A Coupe de France final represents something different, socially and historically, for the country than a concert in Indochina, was in the presence of Jupiter. Afterwards, isn't that what the official deconfinement clip sells us, which promises after June 30 the return of fumis in the kops (even if it means forgetting that case law and the global security law prohibit them, even threaten prison their use). We need a real caesura. Of a full and entire communion. To relive the emotion without arbitrariness. Our colleague Gregory Schneider had recalled on the set of L'Équipe du soir how much Meinau weighed in the life of Racing and in the performance of Laurey's team. We have too much lived our love of football by proxy, nostalgia or riveted attention on social networks. If we can return to the stadium, let's live it as a victory, not a ceasefire. We want the real opium of the people,not methadone or CBD. By Nicolas Kssis-Martov Have you noticed a typo or an inaccuracy in this paper? Suggest a correction to our editors.