France announce strict lockdown measures ahead of Lille vs Celtic; report suggests Euro games will be fine

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Lille is set to go into a state of emergency ahead of Celtic’s arrival to France in just two weeks’ time.

The Ligue 1 side have been drawn in the same Europa League group as Neil Lennon’s men, with the pair set to meet in matchday two of the competition.

However, there were immediate concerns last night after France president Emmanuel Macron announced that Lille would be one of nine cities to be given a curfew (France 24). These rules means that the public cannot leave their homes between 9pm and 6am. Celtic’s game in France is scheduled to kickoff at 18:55 local time – meaning the players will still be in the stadium during the curfew period.

Yet it appears to be that Celtic’s trip to Lille will be fine and won’t be canceled.

The Daily Mail has reported that Manchester United’s trip to Paris next week – another of the affected cities – will still go ahead. The reason for this is reportedly due to the fact that there will be no supporters in the stadium.

No fans = good to go?

Celtic will have the same experience when they head to Lille in two weeks. There were no supporters scheduled to be in the stadium regardless, meaning that rule should also apply to our own game.

Lille’s next match is against Lens in Ligue 1 on Saturday at 9pm local time. It will be intriguing to see if there are any additional rules thrown in or whether the game may even be postponed.

But that appears to be unlikely too. There have been no statements from Lille or the French FA confirming that football will be changing in France in any way, but it remains early days as of yet.

UEFA would likely be frustrated if they were to see a backlog of fixtures pile-up too given European football is already starting later than planned. With the calendar crunched together this year, it’s difficult to see where games could be fit back in.

So hopefully the build-up to the game goes as smoothly as possible with no hitches. Celtic could do with getting that trip to France out of the way, and the early signs indicate that football won’t be affected.

In other news, Celtic midfielder David Turnbull has admitted he’s more than ready to face Rangers.