Coronavirus: Restart in September and have calendar-year seasons – Lyon president Aulas

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Lyon, April 21: Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas backs the idea to restart the season in September and switch to a calendar-year format.

Major sport across the globe has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, though the Bundesliga hopes to resume on May 9 and Ligue 1 is targeting a return on June 17.

Aulas is not worried about any potential further delays, as long as the 2019-20 campaign is played to completion.

He thinks playing the remaining games from September and beginning the new season at the start of 2021 is a sensible idea, given that the 2022 World Cup is scheduled to take place across November and December of that year.

"I have fears we will not be able to resume the season," Aulas told L'Equipe.

"And that is why we should perhaps study another scenario that [Nice president] Jean-Pierre Rivere and Nasser [Al-Khelaifi, Paris Saint-Germain president] spoke about, where we would shift the end of the 2019-20 season to the end of the calendar year and we would resume the new season at the start of 2021.

"This is one of the scenarios that interests FIFA with the World Cup in Qatar.

"Anything that can allow us to finish competitions is fine with me."

Clarity on European football is expected to be provided this week with UEFA holding a meeting with its 55 member associations on Tuesday, followed be a convening of its executive committee on Thursday.