France's Ligue 1 & 2 will not continue this season

The 2019-20 Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 football seasons will not continue after France banned all sporting events until September. The decision includes matches being played behind closed doors.

Football was suspended indefinitely in France on 13 March. French football’s governing body hoped to recommence the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 seasons on 17 June and complete the campaigns on 25 July.

The Ligue de Football Professional (LFP) met on 10 April and voted to resume the Ligue 1 season.

A decision by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has crushed those hopes. He said the 2019-20 sporting season is over as he pronounced plans to ease France's coronavirus lockdown on 11 May.

Philippe said: "The 2019-20 season of professional sports, including football, will not be able to resume. It will be possible, on sunny days, to practice an individual sporting activity outdoors, obviously respecting the rules of social distancing.

"It will not be possible, neither to practice sport in covered places, nor team or contact sports."

A decision is yet to be made on the LFP abandoning the season with no promotion, relegation or champions or basing those outcomes on current standings. 

Defending champions Paris St-Germain are 12 points clear of Marseille at the top of Ligue 1 with a game in hand. With 10 rounds remaining, PSG were heavy favourites to win their fifth consecutive league title.

Toulouse are currently bottom of the Ligue 1  table, 17 points from safety and 10 points behind Amiens. Nimes are 18th and in the relegation play-off spot, three points behind St Etienne in 17th spot.

The top five clubs in Ligue 2 are separated by only four points, with Lorient and Lens currently occupying the automatic promotion spots.

The Eredivisie was abandoned on Friday with no promotion, relegation and no champions. On Monday Belgian clubs postponed a vote on confirming the cancellation of their top flight until next week.