DECRYPTION – A showcase for French Football, the match organized in Doha between PSG and Monaco is an organizational flop.
« Never look surprised. » Jean-Paul Belmondo's famous reply to Richard Anconina in Itinerary of a spoiled child is 37 years old. It hasn't aged a bit and fits perfectly with what French football offers with its Champions Trophy. Usually scheduled at the start of the season to launch hostilities, accompanied by a breath of fresh air and an unfeigned excitement at the idea of seeing new jerseys, new recruits, new teams, this meeting between the Paris SG and AS Monaco, scheduled for last August in China, finally takes place on Sunday in Doha, Qatar (5:30 p.m., DAZN). The epilogue of a long soap opera. Between successive relocations, postponements and behind-the-scenes negotiations.
What should initially have been an enticing showcase for the start of the season was therefore interspersed on a Sunday afternoon, at the end of the winter break, after the 3 p.m. multiplex of the 16e day of Ligue 1, in head-to-head competition with the English clash Liverpool-Manchester United, played at the same time, and before Marseille-Le Havre, closing match on Sunday evening. An organizational master class.
Football sometimes makes fun of rugby and its famous doubles, this sequence calls for measurement and self-criticism. « It’s a poorly managed issue from start to finish where everyone passes the buck.says a source close to the matter. The aim is that this match interested no one and Qatar did a favor to welcome him. »
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