The French Act Like Grownups, Avoid Footy Strike

French footy fans, rejoice. There will be games this weekend.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the probability that a strike would take down French football this weekend. At the time both sides looked set on their positions, and the strike looked inevitable.

I am happy to say that in an amazing fit of maturity and grownup-ness on both sides, each party gave a little bit and the strike was called off.

You may remember that the issue was the makeup of the LFP — the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The club owners wanted to increase their numbers to a fourteen-person majority on the 25-person board so that they could do what they wanted. The players’ union was understandably leery about giving them this power. The LFP was going to do it anyway, and the players were going to strike.

But fortunately cooler heads prevailed.

The presidents will not be given the majority position they wanted but will hold sway over economic aspects in the council.

“The strike is over,” said UNFP co-president Philippe Piat. “We have reached an agreement so that everyone can leave this affair in the best possible conditions.”

Club presidents’ chief Jean-Pierre Louvel, who is also president of Ligue 1 side Le Havre, said: “The presidents have a complete hold on economic aspects and they can be represented when they can’t sit on the council, which wasn’t the case before.

Of course, I’m not finding a definition of those “economic aspects” anywhere, so there still may be room for disagreement in the future. But for the moment, I think that everybody has realized that this is not the best economic environment for a strike.

Because the last thing you want right now is for the fans to realize they can get along without you.

	Soccer Forums	Team/International Results

Category: French Ligue 1, World Football

Tags: france, French Ligue 1, Ligue 1, strike, World Football

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