Players were sceptical to resume Ligue 1: President of French players union

France is set to come out of lockdown on May 11, but the government banned all major sporting events until September.

Dijon (France): The president of the French National Union of Professional Footballers Philippe Piat said on Tuesday that players were "quite skeptical" that football in France would have resumed after lockdown measures would have been lifted, on the same day the national government announced football and rugby leagues will not complete their matches this season as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

“After what the Prime Minister said it seems clear that the 2019-2020 season won't be completed, and that in August we will have to start another season. From our meeting with the minister (French minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu) it came out that it was up to us if we wanted to restart by completing this season, but the general feeling, our interpretation of the situation was in the direction of what the Prime Minister said, that competition for the 2019-2020 season was over," Piat said.

"We were quite sceptical about the chances we could have resumed the season, I can't tell you whether there was surprise or rather the feeling that it was the right decision. But we were, and especially the players, we all had doubts about how feasible it was to preserve the players' health" he added.

France is set to come out of lockdown on May 11, but the government banned all major sporting events until September.

"The 2019-20 season of professional sport, notably football, won't be able to resume," French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Tuesday.

Paris Saint-Germain lead the topflight and are still hopeful of somehow playing in the Champions League, where they are through to the quarterfinals.

The French soccer league said it will meet on Thursday to study "the sporting and financial consequences of the measures announced."