Ligue 1 ending shows soccer is edging closer to accepting reality in this crisis

The French government has made it clear that the Ligue 1 season cannot continue. It’s a reality that more and more major soccer leagues are going to have to face.

Belgium was the first to bring the shutters down. Then the Netherlands followed their lead. Now France have seemingly brought an end to their soccer season with all sporting evenings, including behind-closed-doors matches, suspended until September. The announcement made by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe made Ligue 1, at the time of writing, the biggest league to admit defeat to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Philippe’s announcement caused some confusion over the status of the 2019-20 Ligue 1 season. It has not been voided, as some have claimed, or cancelled. Instead, the decision has been taken out of the division’s hands by the French government who have decided no soccer can be played before September.

In line with UEFA’s reported stance that all domestic seasons must be finished by August 3, this could end the Ligue 1 season by default, but the likelihood, as has been discussed, is that the outcome of the season will either reflect the standings as they look now. Paris Saint-Germain are still expected to be awarded a seventh Ligue 1 title in eight years.

Regardless of who made the call, the situation Ligue 1 has been placed in represents the reality that is starting to dawn on all of European soccer.

Depending on who you listen to the sport is either preparing to get up and running again, with the Bundesliga aiming to resume play on May 8 and Arsenal back in training this week, or getting ready to hibernate over the summer.

There is a sense that some clubs and leagues still have yet to truly accept the gravity of what they face. The Bundesliga, for instance, plans on conducting 20,000 coronavirus tests at a time when Germany’s healthcare system is still stressing and straining to control the outbreak among the general public. The Premier League has reportedly proposed isolating entire teams at neutral venues and hotels. Is all this really feasible? And even if it is, has soccer lost sight of what is really important right now?

UEFA’s stance that seasons must be concluded by August has forced many leagues to act out of desperation, but how much scrutiny has truly been applied to the notion that stretching 2019-20 campaigns beyond the summer is impossible? The thought of some out-of-contract players leaving clubs before the season can be finished might be unappealing, but there’s no fundamental difference between this and how the January transfer window gives players the chance to move on mid-season.

Some leeway should be afforded to soccer’s decision makers right now. This is an unprecedented set of circumstances to which there is no clear forecast. Nobody truly knows how or when this crisis will end.

Soccer clubs and leagues are right to make contingency plans, but there comes a point where concessions must be made. France, along with Belgium and the Netherlands, have reached that point and the rest of the European game might not be too far behind in joining them there.