Category Archives: Division 1 Féminine

Division 1 Arkema and D2 Feminine latest news

Here are the latest League updates from the French D1 and D2

D1 Arkema

Matchday 19

Dijon 0 Le Havre 2

Reims 1 Fleury 3

Bordeaux 3 Soyaux 0

Rodez 2 Montpellier 3

Guingamp 0 Paris SG 1

Lyon 2 Paris FC 0

League table

The title race will go down the wire between Lyon and PSG as usual. They will play each other on Matchday 21 Sunday 21 May at 9pm CET live on Canal Plus.  

The third place race will also go down the wire too. FC Fleury have overtaken Paris FC, both teams have 35 points, but the head to head results the first tie-breaker means Fleury are in front.

At the bottom of the table, two out of three from Soyaux, Rodez and Dijon will go down. Soyaux are nearly down, only one point separates Rodez and Dijon. Rodez have the head to head advantage, so can afford to finish level on point with Dijon.

Matchday 20 will take place on Saturday 6 May as the FFF had planned a week-end off for the Champions League semi-final, expecting one of the French team to make them. Then the following week-end will the Coupe de France Feminine final between Lyon and PSG on Saturday 13 May at 4pm CET.

Division 2 Feminine.

The FFF have recently introduced many changes for the Leagues, we will come back on the news later this week to develop the subject. With the introduction of the Division 3, the FFF has decided to reduce the D2 teams’ number from 24 to 12. It means half of the Group A and half of the Group B teams will go down. One team will also go up to the D1 Arkema.

Tables:

With four games to go, there is nearly no doubt than Lille in Group A and Saint-Etienne in Group B will go up.  Then the relegation battle is a dogfight. In Group A, only Strasbourg and Metz are guaranteed to stay up. While in Group B, Marseille, Nice and Thonon-Evian are staying up.  Nimes are already down. Those eight teams are the only ones who are not under pressure. It leaves 16 teams fighting for survival with four games to go.

Matchday 19 will take place on Sunday 23 April, we might know the promoted teams by Sunday night and more relegated teams should be known too.

Group A

Issy-La Roche-sur-Yon

Paris CA-Lille

Lens-Le Mans

Strasbourg-Nantes

Brest-Saint-Malo

Orléans-Metz

Group B

Albi Marssac-Yzeure

Montauban-Le Puy

Nice-Nîmes

Saint-Étienne-Thonon Évian

Grenoble-Clermont

Toulouse-Marseille

TV rights for French women’s football are now on sale

Bids are now open with a closing date of 4th of May.

The rights for France Women national teams and the D1 Arkema are to be sold for the 2023/24 to 2026/27 period, while the rights for for the Trophee des Championnes are to be sold for 2024 to 2026. The rights for this trophy have already been sold for 2023.

During the recent press conference, Jean-Michel Aulas who is one of the four members of the women’s football committee mentioned that D1 Arkema teams will have to play a minimum of three games in their “premium” stadium during the season, in order to improve the quality offered to the viewers. 

The current tv right holder Canal Plus had also asked to have stadiums with a covered stand. Yes not all the clubs in D1 have one! A platform for the tv crews, as they have to build one from scratch at certain grounds, minimum lighting and quality pitches. Those are basic tv requests that have not been fulfilled in the last couple of  seasons.

The FFF has split the  tv rights in six packages:

France Women National Team one package  for 2023/24 to 2026/27

10 to 14 games per season.

Euro 2025 in Switzerland qualifiers. FIFA World Cup 2027 qualifiers.

Pre-Olympics 2024 friendlies. France are already qualified as hosts.

Nations League 2024 from Septembre 2023 with the final four games in February 2024, should France make it.

Must be on free to air tv.

D1 Arkema four packages for 2023/24 to 2026/27 including one for the newly created play-offs.

Up to 100% of the available 132 games

Four play-off games. Semi-finals, final and third place play-off that decides the last champions league place.

10 games that must be on free to air tv.

Trophee des Championnes one package for three years 2024,2025 and 2026

This is the game between the D1 Arkema winner and the French women’s Cup winner.

Game must be shown on free to air tv.

The FFF is clearly trying to improve a product that they have struggled to promote very well.  It will be interesting to see if there are many bids and if the rights sell for a good price. It is hard to gauge the demand with the games currently being shown on pay tv Canal Plus. Getting free to view tv channels interested is not an easy task.

For more information in French:

https://www.footofeminin.fr/Droits-TV-Les-appels-d-offres-lances_a18516.html

D1 Arkema: teams qualifying for the UWCL 2022/23 are now known

Following matchday 19 out of 22, we now know the three French teams that have qualified for the UEFA Women’s Champions League season 2022/23

Olympique Lyonnais, Paris Saint-Germain and Paris Football Club will represent France in next season’s tournament. It is a welcomed returned for Paris FC who last qualified back in 2011/12 when they were a semi-professional team named Juvisy. They were absorbed by Paris FC as they could not cope with the financial pressure as women’s football started to work towards professional football and their set-up was not allowing them to compete any more.

With three games to play Lyon have 55 points, Paris Saint-Germain have 50 points and Paris FC have 44 points. It means, the teams are extremely likely to finish in the current standing meaning Lyon would qualify directly for the Group stage as champions, PSG for the qualifying round 2 and PFC for the qualifying round 1.

In theory, France could even have two teams going straight to the group stage, if the 2021/22 Champions League winner is French and does not win the D1 Arkema ie PSG win the Champions League and Lyon wins the D1 Arkema. This is unlikely because Barcelona are extremely strong.

The title race is also a done deal because Lyon only need one point out of three games to be crowned champions. Should Lyon and Paris SG finish level on points, the first tie-breaker is head to head result. And there it is, Lyon beat Paris SG 6-1 on matchday 8. The game came straight after the Hamraoui attack. The turmoil that ensued with the Diallo arrest and all the other players partners and agents being accused along a famous world cup runner-up cheating on his wife with Hamraoui meant that PSG were not in good shape going into the game, and it showed. Paris SG will not beat Lyon by six goals unless something unusual happens.

In the race for the runner-up place, Paris SG need three points in three games because they have the head to head results having won four points in the games against Paris FC versus one point.

At the bottom of the table, five teams are fighting to avoid one of the two relegation places. Guingamp, Dijon, Issy, Soyaux and St-Etienne. Dijon and Issy lost to Bordeaux and PSG, two expected results. Guingamp had a huge 3-1 win at St-Etienne. It puts them four points clear of Soyaux, currently in the relegation place and eight points clear of St- Etienne who are at the bottom of the table and very likely to go down now. Soyaux lost at home to Reims to stay rooted to the second relegation place and they trail Dijon and Issy by three points now.

A key postponed game will be played today with St-Etienne at home to Dijon. Any other result that a win would leave St-Etienne in huge trouble and needing nine points in the last three games.

The teams coming up from the D2 will be Rodez who won group B last Sunday and in Group A, it will be either Nantes, Le Havre or Lille. Those are three historic men club who have started investing money in their women’s team. Le Havre are at home to Nantes on Sunday in what could be the title decider.

The upcoming three matchdays in D1 will be exciting and it is shame that the FFF has not managed to get more exposure to the League around the world.

D1 Feminine naming rights extended until 2025

The FFF and Arkema have extended their partnership that started back in 2019 for another three years.

As revealed by l’Equipe the new contract is worth 1 200 000€ per season a 20% increase from the previous one. There is no doubt that the D1 Feminine is an undervalued product that is not well marketed although its tv rights are now world around the world with ATA broadcasting games online in many countries or even on tv like BT Sport in England.

The French sports paper also mentions that all 12 D1 Feminine teams will therefore receive around 100 000€ per season as well as a one off payment this season valued at 50 0000€ in order to them structure their clubs and invest on youth teams.

D1 Feminine Matchday 1 recap

It’s only Matchday 1 and we get the feeling that it is Groundhog Day at the top of the table.  The fixture list  was not offering any duel between teams from last season’s top 5 and the new season shows already there is continuity in term of the teams’ hierarchy.

 

OL in full control mode, PSG goes to 7 heaven

The fenottes were at home to promoted side Marseille at a near capacity Groupama Training centre with close to 2 000  fans. With a successful preseason with two wins in the IWCC under their belt, there was no surprise to see a win against OM with six goals scored. The opener came in the third by one of the new signing Nikita Parris. Without their captain Wendie Renard who was put on substitute’s bench because of a virus or Amel Majri who was injured, the Captain for the day Eugenie Le Sommer was getting the second goal after some good work from Ada Hegerberg. The Norwegian had to wait a little bit to open her account, as she missed a cross from Alex Greenwood for Dzsenifer Marozsan to finish the move for the 2-0.

In the second half, OM went down to 10 after a red card, Cascarino got her goal on a turnover concluded by a nice solo move. And Hegeberg got a brace from two set pieces from Maroszan, the second goal was actually a follow through from an M’Bock shot that hit the crossbar. It was a large victory and coach Vasseur acknowledged it but also noted there was a lot of work to be done: “we are here to get better in everything that we do. Everything is not perfect, but the score line is good. We really wanted to start the season well. We created a lot of chances and could have scored a lot more goals”

A work in progress after that first game was also the word for the Marseille coach Christophe Parra “It was important to have a good quality of work today against the Champions League holders. The players learn a lot by playing those kinds of games. We have a lot of young players and it will be important to analyse what went right and wrong and to think on how to improve things “Guingamp is up next for Marseille in two weeks after the international break.

 

It’s only the first game of the season, we have to put things in perspective

Lyon was top of the League on Saturday; PSG overtook them on Sunday following their victory against Soyaux on the new artificial pitch at Stade Jean-Bouin. Like at the Lyon game, there was no need to wait very long to see the opener, as Marie-Antoinette Katoto opened her account less than a minute into the game. Last season’s top scorer took advantage of the space between Soyaux’s defensive lines to get a double. Hannah Glas then scored PSG’s third goal straight after the second one (3-0 35’). Unfortunately for her, Katoto would not add more goals to her tally as she had to be substituted with an injury in the 51st minute. Huitema checked in and was involved on the fourth goal from a corner, as her ball hit Diani before going in. Geyoro took advantage of a defensive mistake to get her goal, and Nadim also got on the scoresheet. Finally the new signing Däbritz scored with a toe-poke to make it seven and go top of the League. She was happy with the team’s performance: “ it was a perfect game, it is nice to have scored so many goals, I am very happy with this. We are really satisfied and hope to carry on this way”

A positive day for Olivier Echouafni” we got the victory, this is the most important point, you always have some doubts before the opening game. We did what was needed to open the score quickly, and we made the game easy to play by doing it.  We managed to score a lot of goals without conceding. It is only the season’s first game, we have to put things in perspective”

Even if Soyaux’s squad had not changed much during the close season and with only Tandia missing through suspension, coach Sebastien Joseph was bemoaning the lack of basics implemented during the game. “ We did not play football today, there is a lot of disappointment. We made too many errors  and presented them with goal scoring opportunities. We were too passive to get anything from that game. We need to rectify all those problems if we want to do something this season” There is certainly a lot to do for the team at the bottom of the league.

 

Bordeaux’s attack firing on all cylinders

As a team coming with new ambitions, the Bordeaux girls have started the season well against Fleury.  They were the first team to score this season, thanks to a misunderstanding between Sevecke and her goalie. With a clear intent on an attacking style, Pedro Losa’s team carried on attacking and Asseyi’s shot was well stop by Gignoux-Soulier (12’). The first chance for Fleury came from Corboz but he shot lacked any power to surprise Nayler (18’). A few minutes later, Shaw powered past Sevecke but hit the crossbar (18’). She was rewarded later in the game when she headed in a corner from Jaurena (2-0 75’). Makanza brought the game back to 2-1 as she took advantage of an error by Thibaud, but a handball from Gadea allowed Asseyi to score a penalty ( 3-1 82’) with Shaw finishing off the game ( 4-1 90’)

 

Dijon collapse in ten minutes against PFC

PFC seems to be Dijon’s nemesis and Saturday’s game was no different from the previous ones. Dijon had started the game well, Barbance hitting the crossbar from long range (13’). The last minutes of the first half were all PFC with the German left-back Savin pushing forward to help with the overload and give two assists. First for Thiney, who finished with a great volley ( 1-0 38’) and then for Soyer with a powerful shot ( 2-0 42’).  Then just before the half-time whistle Mateo found Catala for the (3-0 45+1’). An air pocket before the break according to the Dijon coach that left the players struggling to react during that ten minutes stint. He was still happy with his team’s second half performance. PFC managed the game in the second act, Dijon finally found an opening thanks to Carage after a good work from Bouillot ( 3-1 85’) but it was too little to late.

 

Le Bihan unlocks Reims’s defence,

Clarisse Le Bihan put her team on the right track by unlocking the Reims defence with a fantastic long range left footed shot that ended up under the crossbar (1-0 44’). Montpellier had not shown enough movement off the ball to so far in the game to surprise a well organised newly promoted team Reims. Their new goalie Schmitz hand to make an important save against Feller (29’), while Phillipe had a penalty shoot after a dubious contact with Karchaoui (42’).  At the start of the second half, Simon fouled Mondesir and with the penalty converted by Le Bihan, Montpellier could breathe a lot better (2-0 47’). “we did more combination play and developed our game more “said the coach Frederic Mendy after the game. But the score line would not evolve even with a Petermann shot from 20 m going close to the top corner. The result was the main take from the Montpellier team while Amandine Miquel the Reims coach thought the performance and the dedication to the tasks shown during the game from her side were positives. “they fought with all their available weapons and competed well” A performance that will need to be repeated if they want to stay up.

 

Guingamp get some most needed points early in the season

Even if it was matchday 1, the game looked like a key relegation battle game. Both sides had to wait until the very end of the season to see their place in D1 Feminine confirmed and the winner on the day would have a big psychological boost. The head to head record is the tiebreaker in D1 Feminine. The game did not really allow us to gauge the real strength of FC Metz because of the early red card from their captain Melissa Godart for a foul on her opposite number Desire Oparanozie. A seemingly innocuous free-kick allowed Faustine Robert to surprise Justine Lerond and Guingamp to take the lead (1-0 30’) . FC Metz replied by Gordon who tried to lob Durand from 28 yards, but the goalie managed to clear the ball (34’). The game stayed open and could have gone both way right until the end when Louise Fleury on the play of the game scored the second and winning goal past Lerond (2-0, 90+4)

The original post can be found in French here on footofeminin.fr

 

All D1 Feminine games to be shown live on tv in 2018/19

The original post in French can be found here on http://www.footofeminin.fr.

The Canal Plus group has won the tv rights for the D1 Feminine for three seasons 2018-21*. Until now, Eurosport and France television were showing around a dozen games each. The FFF had decided to speed up the tv broadcasting development by offering the D1 Feminine rights to the channels who could show ALL the games live from this season. Canal + has won the battle and therefore it is a huge step forward for women’s football in term of media exposure.

There will be two main games on every matchday. One on Saturday that will be the leading game on Canal + Sport with the League game snow moved from their traditional Sunday spot to Saturday afternoon. The games will now take place at 2.30 pm.

Then the second main game will be played on Sundays at 3pm on Canal + Sport again. The remaining four games will be broadcast live on Saturdays on Foot + allowing the fans to either follow their favorite team for the whole game or  watch the leading Saturday game but without missing the key moments from the other games via the multiplex system.

Then during the half-time break from the Ligue 1 game ( men’s football) shown live on Canal + at 5pm, there should be a 12 minutes highlight show on the D1 Feminine. As usual with any Canal + football game, journalist and consultants/pundits will be commentating from the sidelines.  The Canal + group is hoping to drum up interest in the women’s game, as this season will lead us to the FIFA WWC that will take place in France in June 19.

 

Highlights to be shown in multiple Canal + football programs

They have decided to boost the D1 Feminine coverage with many stories and articles to be added to the highlights that will be shown in the main football programs like Jour de Foot on Saturday evenings. On Sundays afternoon, during the half-time show from the Ligue 1 game, shown on Canal +, the highlights from the D1  Feminine Sunday games will be also shown. Then in the evening, the Canal Football Club will also show the highlights from the afternoon game.

Laure Boulleau, the former France and PSG player has just signed up for the Canal Football Club following her retirement from football and therefore will deliver her expertise on the Ligue 1 and D1 Feminine. And finally, the J+1 and Late Football Club will  have players and coaches from women’s football in those shows during the season.

This is major investment for Canal + who have decided to be major actor of the women’s football development in France. IT will be up to the players and coaches to offer and entertaining football. Investments  have already been made to upgrade the facilities at the different clubs as there will be six cameras positioned around the pitches.
Improvements in the stands and publicity boards have also been requested to the clubs as everything needs to be ready in the less than a month when the season starts. As mentioned by the paper Le Parisien, Canal + has paid  6 M€ over 5 years ie 1,2 M€ per season. A huge increase from the previous contract signed in 2011 ( 110 000 €) and 2017 ( 200 000 € )
* five years contract as per the end of the article

The Division 1 Feminine winter transfer window

Until the 31st of January, the French clubs can make some adjustments to their playing staff. Here is a reminder of the FFF regulations.

 

Players moving from one D1 club to another one

From this season, a new rule allows players who have played for a Division 1 team to play for another D1 team. Nevertheless, this rule only applies to players under pro contract ” contrat federal” who are loaned to other clubs. Article 22 of the regulations of the D1 and D2 championship.

Players movement until the 31st of January

Players can change club outside of the normal transfer window from the 16th of July 17 to the 31st of January 18. Each season the amateur players, can move a maximum of two times. For the players moving outside of the normal transfer window, the new club must obtain the agreement from the player’s previous club, except in special cases. Article 92 from the general regulations from the FFF.

Loans

D1 Feminine club can loan up to four players during one season. D1 and D2 clubs can only sign a maximum of three loaned players in the same season. Loan for players under pro contract are set for one season maxium, the agreement can can be extended. The loan can be organised only if the player is over 18 years old.  Article 1.5 from the Statut Federal de la joueuse.

 

Transfers already disclosed

Olympique Lyonnais

In : Amandine Henry ( Portland Thorns), Morgan Brian ( Chicago Red Stars)

Out : Mylaine Tarrieu ( FCGB- loan), Claire Lavogez (FC Fleury – loan), Andrea Norheim (Pitea FF ), Kenza Dali  ( Lille OSC – loan)

 

Montpellier HSC

In : Casey Murphy ( Rutgers University)

Out : Lindsey Thomas ( FC Girondins de Bordeaux – loan), Marine Haupais ( FC Fleury)

 

PSG

Out :  Laura Georges ( FC Bayern), Perle Morroni ( FC Barcelona), Shirley Cruz ( Jiangsu Suning )

 

FC Girondins de Bordeaux

In : Lindsey Thomas ( Montpellier HSC – loan), Mylaine Tarrieu ( OL -loan), Kathellen Sousa Feitoza (University of Central Florida)

 

ASJ Soyaux

In : Danielle Tolmais ( US St Malo)

Out : Élodie Nakkach (Dijon ,  Allison Blais (Dijon )

 

FC Fleury

In : Marine Haupais ( Montpellier HSC), Claire Lavogez ( OL – loan)

 

ASPTT Albi

In : Laura Condon (University of Northwestern Ohio ), Joanna Viollaz ( Glasgow Rangers)

Out : Lea Massibot, Oceane Closet ( FC Vendenheim)

 

EA Guingamp

In :  Alison Peniguel (Lamballe FC)

Out : Luce Ndolo Ewele (Grenoble F38)

 

Olympique De Marseille

In : Sandrine Bretigny

 

The original article in French can be found here

Division 1 Feminine Matchday 12 results

There was an important game at the top of the table and it might decide who will get in the Champions League next season, depending on what will happen for the OL PSG and MHSC OL games.

 

Some big results at the top of the table with Montpellier beating PSG, the first time MHSC has beaten a top 2 team in the League since Jean-Louis Saez took over the team. The Swedish mafia ( Jakobsson, Blackstenius) scored for Montpellier.

Juvisy lost ground in midweek, won on Sunday and announced tday that they would start merging with Paris Football Club. Clearly their amateur/ semi-professional model is not competitive against full time professional teams and they had to make a change to survive and try to be competitive again.

There was a lot of hype for Alex Morgan’s debut away to Guingamp and she started the game with Ada Hegerberg being dropped to make way for her. Hegerberg subbed in for Le Sommer at half time and Morgan lasted 73 minutes and was replaced by Lavogez.

Postponed game

St Etienne 2 Juvisy 0

 

Matchday 12 results

Guingamp 0 OL 3

Montpellier 2 PSG 1

Soyaux 2 Bordeaux 0

Juvisy 3 Albi 0

OM 3 Rodez 1

St Etienne Metz postponed

 

Table

1 Lyon 30 pts  pl 11

2 Montpellier 30 pts pl 12

3 PSG 26 pts pl 11

4 Juvisy 16 pts 11

5 Guingamp 15 pts pl 11

6 OM 14 pts pl 11

7 St Etienne 13 pts pl 10

8 Soyaux 13 pts pl 11

9 Rodez 12 pts pl 12

10 Bordeaux 9 pts pl 12

11 Albi 7 pts pl 10

12 Metz 1 pt pl 10

 

The current table is distorted with teams having games in hand all over the place.

Metz are likely to go down unless they start winning games, while the second relegation place is wide open. In theory, no one except the top 3 teams are safe. Of course it will depend on Albi’s results with their two games in hand because if they win those, they could go as high as 7th in the table.

At the top the situation is clear, PSG are in danger of not qualifying for the champions league, a first since QSI took over the women’s team properly and bankrolled the changes.

Lyon can finish the season with 63 pts, Montpellier with 60 pts, PSG with 59 pts maximum, unless they can get something on appeal from the Matchday 1 game lost by penalty. PSG obviously hoping for the game to be replayed and then win it again.

 

If we consider that the top 3 teams will beat all the team ranked 4th to 12, the crucial remaining head to head games will be played on :

Matchday 15  Montpellier-Lyon 26th of Feb

Matchday 21 Lyon – PSG 14th of May

 

 

D1 Feminine matchday 12 preview

After a week-end dedicated to the French Cup, it is back to the usual business with the D1 feminine matchday 12 that could see Alex Morgan make her debut for Olympique Lyonnais while Amandine Henry could make hers for PSG.

First,  there is a postponed game form Matchday 7 to be played on Wednesday between  Saint-Etienne and Juvisy. Then next week-end we will have the full fixture list on Saturday and Sunday.

 

Here is the upcoming program and the league table :

Table as from today from http://www.footofeminin.fr

table

 

Note : PSG have been given a 3-0 defeat to Albi in Matchday 1 and a penalty point as well so there are currently in 3rd place with 26 points as their appeal is not suspensive.

The Montpellier v PSG game is therefore crucial in the title/champions League place race, with both teams having brought reinforcements during the winter transfer window : Lawrence and Henry for PSG, Cayman and Blackstenius for MHSC

 

Wed 11 Jan

St Etienne v Juvisy

Sat 14 Jan

Guingamp v Lyon ( live on Eurosport player & best moment goals on Eurosport 2 ) ko 2.30 pm

Montpellier v PSG   ( live on Eurosport 2 ) ko 2.30pm

Sun 15  Jan

Soyaux v Bordeaux

St-Etienne v Metz

Juvisy v Albi

Marseille v Rodez

 

 

 

 

 

 

A PSG admin error gives Albi the win in Matchday 1 game

During the opening game of the 2016/17 season PSG v Albi, Sarah Palacin played while she was not named on the team sheet, as another player’s name was registered.  The verdict from the disciplinary commission was given today and sees PSG penalised with a defeat by penalty and Albi get the win.

It was either the game to be replayed or a defeat by penalty, as PSG had now been waiting for more than two months for the decision about the game that was played on Matchday 1. It ended  PSG comfortably winning by four goals to nil.

An administrative error happened with Sarah Palacin who was not named on the team sheet came on as a sub. In her place Hawa Cissokho’s name was put on the teamsheet, while she was not there as a substitute on the bench.

As a reminder, the Division 1 feminine is using the electronic team sheet for the third season.  In order to fill up the matchday teamsheet, the teams no longer write-up the player’s name,  licence registration number,  date of birth etc, they simply click on the players names on the matchday tablet.  It is probably because of  a lack of concentration or attention that Cissokho ended up instead of Palacin on the teamsheet.

The facts

On the team sheet, it was mentioned that there was a “technical problem” in the post game observations area. In that box, it was written that for PSG number 9 had replaced on the 46th minute number 20. That point had to be cleared and an enquiry had been opened in order to gather all the needed information to take a decision.

The Federal commission had to examine that case before returning judgement on the final scoreline. It could  have been a complex case scenario.  Both captains had signed the team sheet before the game and therefore agreed on the team’s line-up. In that case, it was decided that Palacin coming on as a sub was a player participating in a game where was not registered for on the teamsheet.

Defeat by penalty

As one player had taken part in the game, while she had not been registered on the team sheet prior to the game, her team was in breach of the Reglements Generaux  regulations from the FFF related to playing in a game.

The commission therefore considered that :

It was not possible that the player taking part in the game, while not registered on the team sheet, even if it was due to the club’s carelessness, would bear no sporting consequence

Validating the result from a game won with an irregularity, due to  the lack of knowledge from the club on the regulations was obviously not agreeable

The fact that the referees did not realise, before the game, that there was a player not listed on the team sheet that could enter the game and play, does not exonerate the team from its entire responsibility in the fact that there was an irregularity during the game.

This is due to the fact that the captains have an obligation to check, with the potential help from the club executives, the players list and squad numbers from their team.

The referees should not bear that responsibility, as they do not have the capacity and the means to manage it especially as it could lead to an abuse of the system.

The commission put the decision in deliberate and communicated it to the club today by giving the game lost by penalty to PSG and Albi to get the win.  PSG loses the three points from the victory as well as an extra point as a punishment ( for the error). Albi gets the 3 points for the win and the scoreline goes by 3-0.

Appeal from PSG ?

Top of the table  before that decision, PSG should probably appeal the decision. With that punishment, they dropped to the third place with 26 points, behind Lyon and Montpellier with 27 points. The club has 10 days to appeal, once it has been officially notified of the punishment.

 

This is the translation from the following footofeminin article

http://www.footofeminin.fr/D1F-ALBI-PSG-1re-journee-une-erreur-administrative-offre-la-victoire-a-ALBI-par-penalite_a13226.html

Update :  PSG has already said they would appeal