Jardim criticises French League(LFP) over schedule

Published 10/02/2015, 10:33 AM EDT

PARIS (Reuters) – Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim criticised the French League (LFP) for the way it sets the Ligue 1 schedule, saying the cramped calendar does not allow enough recovery time between Europe and domestic matches.

“It is difficult, in France, to play the championship and the Europa League at the same time,” Jardim told a news conference ahead of Sunday’s Ligue 1 game against Stade Rennais after they drew 1-1 against Tottenham in the Europa League on Thursday.

“It is impossible to finish a game at 9pm on Thursday and to play again on Sunday at 2pm. Sixty-five hours of recovery between two matches — how are we going to do? “The Europa League is a beautiful competition for French clubs. But I do not understand why we don’t play on Mondays, like in other countries,” the Portuguese added.

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With Monaco trailing leaders Paris St Germain by eight points, Jardim said he simply could not field his best team on Sunday against third-placed Rennes.

“The players are tired. We’ll have to be at 100 percent but I will have to make changes. If I keep the same 11 players who played against Tottenham, I’ll have to make 11 substitutions after 50 minutes and I only can make three,” he said.

“It’s time that someone makes a decision.”

Monaco are ninth in Ligue 1 with 12 points from eight games.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.