France: stadiums opening in January "A horizon moving further away" (J-M Blanquer, Minister)

"What we wanted was the reopening of the stadiums in January 2021 with a proportional capacity system, for example every other seat. This is a horizon that is perhaps moving further away a little with the epidemic situation, but we will do our best to make it possible in the times to come," said Jean-Michel Blanquer, French Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, on BFMTV on 03/01/2021.

Stadiums and arenas will remain behind closed doors until at least Thursday 07/01/2021, announced Jean Castex, French Prime Minister, on 10/12/2020. A new decision point was to be made to know whether the sports arenas can reopen or not on 01/07/2021.

"We will do this reopening in a responsible way and always in connection with the actors in sport. I was struck by their very responsible character. They made health protocols sport by sport, we share the constraints to manage to get out of this situation as quickly as possible," continued the Minister.

"From an economic point of view, we are very attentive to small and medium-sized clubs which are going through difficult situations. This is…