The Ligue 1 of Côte d’Ivoire (national championship 1 st Division) will be played without an audience. This is the decision since Monday afternoon of the Normalization Committee of the Ivorian Football Federation. The current Ivorian football boss, Ms. Mariam Dao Gabala, said so in a statement.

The current health situation justifies the absence of an audience for Ligue 1 matches in Côte d’Ivoire , according to the note: “ The Ivorian Football Federation informs clubs, the press and the sports public that the 2020-2021 championship will be played. behind closed doors , ”the statement read.

However, the president of the Standardization Committee specifies that certain people will be authorized to have access to the stadiums. These include, among others, the officials of the clubs concerned, their guests, FIF officials, referees, 15 press organizations, etc.

Grumbling among supporters

March 16, 2020 – March 27, 2021, Ivorian local football has been inactive for more than a year. The coronavirus pandemic is the cause. At the announcement of the resumption of the championships , happy were all the lovers of the round ball in the country. Unfortunately, they are already disillusioned since having to follow the matches, not all, on TV in their living rooms. They will miss the human warmth of Champroux and other stadiums in the country.

In any case, as soon as this news is announced, die-hard supporters of flagship clubs such as Asec and Africa are already growling. “ We do not agree with this decision. We are going to organize ourselves to go and meet Ms. Gabala to make her understand that this decision is frustrating. We, supporters, are helpless; we are therefore going to plead with her so that she takes appropriate measures to fix us , ”reacts Ms. Amy Ouattara, one of the very active ladies of Asec supporters. She specifies that this action will be done jointly with supporters of Africa and other clubs. ” We have already agreed, ” she concludes.

Clubs are already checking out

Originally scheduled for March 20, the launch of Ligue 1 will finally take place this Saturday, March 27. But before the start, the president of the Standardization Committee financially relieves the club leaders a little. The 14 clubs of Ligue 1 thus each receive the sum of 4.9 million FCFA. 2.8 million FCFA for each of the 24 clubs in Ligue 2. And 1.8 million FCFA for each of the 38 clubs in D3. This makes a total of 170,165,000 FCFA of Covid-19 funds granted by FIFA.