France cancels 2021 season

After originally setting the 2021 schedule in December for a February start and then postponing the season twice, the French Federation of American Football, FFFA (Fédération Française de Football Américain), has finally announced that it is cancelling the season outright.

With the French health authorities maintaining that American football in France is strictly an amateur sport and thus only allowing practices under the severest of conditions which means no pads and no tackling and no practicing after 6 pm or on weekends, and also with no prospect of that changing in the near future, the FFFA made the decision to cancel the season for all levels of football on both the men’s and women’s sides.

The FFFA states it it “accepts the obvious and wishes above all to protect its licensees and remove the uncertainty that weighs on all federal stakeholders.”

According to the FFFA, a recovery plan will be presented in the next couple of weeks to ensure the sustainability of all affiliated associations. The FFFA will now turn its attention to preparing for a 2021-2022 season.

It was almost exactly one year ago that France was forced to cancel the 2020 season after the season had reached through the third round of play.

FFFA President Brigitte Schleifer (newly re-elected):

“We are very disappointed with the lack of information from the French health authorities. All major professional sports were able to resume their activities. Only amateur sports have been left at a standstill and for far too long. Despite several communications exchanges with the French Ministry of Sports and also the desire to defend our status within European championships, we still have received no concrete decision from the government. Our ambition now is to do everything possible to become competitive again in 2022.”

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