Top 14: Lille denied 2024 semi-final due to Olympics

This is a new side effect of the 2024 Olympics. Other sporting events scheduled at the Olympic venues must sometimes obey the imperatives of organizing the high mass of world sports. The last danger for today: next season’s French Rugby Championship semi-final, scheduled for the weekend of 21 and 22 June 2024, cannot take place at the Decathlon Arena – Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.

This festive event, which for two days and two matches brings together fans of the four teams that made it to the last four Top 14, traditionally takes place in the same city, which has been vibrating for rugby for 48 hours. The 2023 semi-finals will take place in San Sebastian, Spain this Friday (Toulouse-Racing 92) and this Saturday (La Rochelle – Bordeaux-Begle).

Lille was chosen for 2024 three years ago. But the National Rugby League, which organizes the event, will have to give up. The news will be official soon. The NRL also began looking for a replacement stadium. Bordeaux, who will host the 2025 semi-final, and Marseille, who will host the 2024 Top 14 final, were polled.

Paris 2024 needs stadium 15 days earlier than planned

Why would the LNR refuse these semi-finals in Lille? Because Paris 2024, which organizes basketball qualifying rounds and handball finals at this stadium from 26 July to 11 August 2024, finally needs the Decathlon Arena sooner than expected. Fifteen days exactly. The Organizing Committee of the Games will have to pick it up on June 10, not June 25, in order to bring the enclosure up to the standards of international basketball events (in particular, ventilation, size of media access).

The arrival of basketball in Lille increased the restrictions placed on the Pierre-Mauroy stadium to bring it up to Olympic standards. At that time, negotiations began with the LNR, Métropole de Lille, the stadium operator, and Paris 2024. And there was no other option but to reschedule the Top 14 semi-final, scheduled for the weekend of June 22, a month before the first basketball game of the Olympic tournament.

The Stade de France suffered the same fate as the Pierre Maurois stadium. Paris 2024 will also have to take over the Saint-Denis building earlier, from the beginning of 2024, in order to carry out work there. Consequence: Football Blues will have to look for other stadiums for their spring matches. And XV France will play their home matches of the 2024 Six Nations Tournament in February and March next year in Marseille (against Ireland) and Lyon (against England). The Blues Rugby will also host Italy… in Lille. If he lost the Top 14 semi-final because of the Olympics, the crowd at Stade Pierre-Mauroy still won their dose of rugby in 2024.