Prior to the presentation of the de-confinement plan by the Prime Minister, Julien Fournier gave his views to the daily paper Le Monde on whether or not to resume the competition in June.

For the OGC Nice football director, a resumption of the 2019-20 season in June would be "an extremely hasty decision and I see absolutely no advantage to it. Neither from an economic point of view, nor from a health point of view, nor in terms of image. Absolutely no advantage," he told Le Monde in an interview. "Often the clubs mainly put forward the economic aspect as the main reason for finishing the championship. But I think that's a rather superficial analysis."

The Nice director insists that the health of the players is not being sufficiently taken into account: "That's what bothers me the most. For the time being, the President of the Republic has said that only those who are thought to have symptoms will be tested. If we football clubs started testing our players every other day, how would we explain it to the thousands of carers? How can we explain that footballers are given priority over healthcare workers, supermarket cashiers, all those professions who are face to face with the pandemic? I'd feel pretty uncomfortable about it. Football cannot come before these people."

In comparison with other countries that are planning a resumption of their championship, such as Germany (early May), Julien Fournier believes that "each government will take a decision depending on the situation, particularly on the question of the number of tests and masks available. I consider that football is neither above nor below the law. It is not an exception to society."

According to the football director, the scenario of the resumption of training in May and the competition in mid-June also poses a significant risk of injury: "As currently planned, as I understand it, the resumption of training in May would be in groups of three or four players. It is only later, one week before the competition resumes, that full group training sessions would be allowed. Without friendly matches, with a sort of somewhat truncated pre-season, it's a good bet that there will be many, many injuries in all the clubs. To play matches every three days after such a long break is also psychologically difficult, and then to follow that up with a new league season [in May], or even the Euro for internationals, I don't think it's very responsible."

Julien Fournier's position is in line with that of Sylvain Kastendeuch, the co-president of the players' union, calling for a definitive end to the season ‘under these conditions’: "As much as I can be critical of this institution, I found this text extremely relevant and fair. But I find that the players, in their vast majority, remain strangely silent. While they would be the first to be exposed in terms of health, but also in terms of their image."

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