New date for Marseille-PSG to be set on Thursday

A new date will be set on Thursday for the match between Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain that was postponed due to an outbreak of swine flu at PSG, the French Professional League (LFP) announced on Monday.

Marseille had requested that the match — originally scheduled for Sunday — be played this Wednesday, which they termed “the only intelligent date” in view of their Champions League commitments.

But the league’s Competitions Commission ruled out Wednesday as premature and an emergency meeting has now been called by the LFP for Thursday.

“The experts have strongly recommended a minimum isolation period of 72 hours, at least until Wednesday morning. This was accepted by PSG,” the LFP said in a statement.

“As a result it’s not feasible, unless our experts change their minds, to put the team in the plane on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.

“Only after three days will we know the extent of the virus – we won’t be clear of new cases by Tuesday or Wednesday.

“From a purely physical point of view, playing a top-level match with players who haven’t trained for three or four days, some coming back from illness, seems impossible and is without any doubt an injury risk.”

PSG on Saturday confirmed that their former France international attacking midfielder Ludovic Giuly and defender Mamadou Sakho had contracted swine flu.

It was then announced on Sunday that midfielder Jeremy Clement had also contracted the virus and there were fears that two other squad members had symptoms. One of these was believed to be striker Loris Arnaud.

The match is the first in France at senior level to be cancelled due to swine flu.