The end of French Cup and amateur leagues

French Handball Federation has announced the end of season in French Cup and amateur leagues. Here is the statement:

In the context of the global health crisis linked to the Coronavirus COVID-19 and in order to preserve the health of the players, and more generally the ‘the entire handball community, the Federation has made the difficult decision to definitively stop the amateur championships at all levels (departmental, regional and national) for the current season. The 2019-2020 national, regional and departmental French Cup is also canceled. The FFHandball had already made the decision to suspend all competitions on March 12, given the increasingly rapid spread of COVID-1. Meeting on Monday March 23, the Board of Directors of the French Handball Federation, after having previously consulted all of the federal structures, the social partners but also the female and male professional leagues, therefore decided to definitively stop all competitions.
 
Consequently, the male interpolations, female and male interligues as well as the female and male intercoms are also canceled.
 
Thus, no title of champion of France, regional champion, departmental champion or winner of the Coupe de France, at any level will be awarded for the 2019-2020 season. 
  
In order to best strive for sports equity for all national, regional and departmental championships, the Management Board has decided that there will be no clean year and that the classifications are finalized.
 
The modalities relating to accessions and relegations for national competitions will be communicated by the Competition Organizing Committee (COC) very soon.
 
The terms relating to the teams qualified for the male U18s and the number of additional right holders will be communicated to you during the week as well as the terms relating to the number of right holders per league for the female U17s.

In order to take account of the exceptional context, support measures will soon be taken at the national level, in particular:

• Reduction of the number of relegated teams for the 2019-2020 season;
• Following the passage in group of 14 teams or 13 teams of level N2 male and N1 female the teams of N2M, N3M, N1F and N2F will not participate in the Coupe de France next season;
• Postponement of certain regulatory management control provisions which were to come into force for the 2020-2021 sporting season, in order to take account of the economic context of emerging from the crisis;
• Postponement of the obligations concerning authorized coaches in female U17 and male U18, in order to take into account the suspension of training in progress;
• No sporting and financial sanctions for clubs that refuse accession or request demotion;
• No sanctions relating to the Mutualized Contribution of Clubs to Development (CMCD) for the 2019-2020 season.
• The penalty points linked to the 2018-2019 season and applied in 2019-2020 must be recalculated in proportion to the matches played.

Within the framework of the national provisions for the permanent cessation of all 2019-2020 competitions at all levels with the classification up to date, the regional and departmental authorities will be required to adapt the accessions and relegations to the best of sporting interest.
 
As a reminder, these decisions relate only to the amateur championships. The National Handball League and the Women’s Handball League will communicate later on the professional championships (Lidl Starligue, Proligue and Butagaz Energy League).

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