Following Tuesday's announcement by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe that the 2019-20 season "cannot restart," Jean-Pierre Rivère gave his thoughts to L'Equipe 21 and RMC.

"The health aspect won the day," the OGC Nice president said. "It's a wise decision, very responsible. We were looking at restarting in very special conditions and with very little clear sightedness. There was apprehension about restarting training in quite ill-defined and unclear conditions. It's never good to put the players' health at risk, that of our staff…with a lot of problems and as many unknowns. So it's a relief."

"THINGS ARE CLEAR: THE SEASON STOPS"

While he had suggsted at the start of the crisis that the 2019-20 campaign could start again in August to put it in sync with the winter World Cup in Qatar, Rivère has now drawn a line under the season.

"This idea, which I defended a month-and-a-half ago, I'm no longer behind that," he said; "It was an extremely complex idea to put in place, and which could only work with agreement across Europe. Things are clear: the season stops. Knowing when we can start the next one, that's the real question. How will we bridge the two seasons financially, because there will be revenue missing? Other questions, diverse and varied, remain unanswered: are we going to be able to start training in July? We also have two challengers, PSG and Lyon, still in Europe. If those competitions are played and we can start training in July, it'll allow them to take part. And they need to. We need very clear answers."

THE FINAL STANDINGS: "A COLLECTIVE DECISION FOR EVERYONE"

The French Football League (LFP) will now have to decide on the final standings for 2019-20. According to Le Gym president, the decision is not imminent: "There's a procedure to respect. I think that it will end up with a general assembly. There are three possible scenarios. With OGC Nice involved [Le Gym would be sixth and qualify for European competition in two of the three possible outcomes], I'm not going to make any comment, even if personally I think that the option chosen by the French FA for the amateur leagues [based on an average of points per game] has sense to it. It'll be a collective decision and will be imposed on everyone, regardless of the interests of this one or that one. I hope no-one will contest the outcome of the vote. What's important is that football comes out of this stronger." 

Jean-Pierre Rivère finished by calling for unity: "It's important for us all to get together, that we work as well as possible to help each club get through this crisis in the best possible way so that everyone can be there when we start again. It's something we're all going through, and we have to be united so that we can, one day, enjoy seeing all our fans again."

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