France: PlayOffs and PlayDowns…program and formula
2 min read
From tomorrow, April 8, Play-Offs and Play-Downs will start in French Ligue A, despite the last minute changes.
About playoffs, quarterfinals will be played with a best-of-five formula, with Game 1, 2 and eventual Game 5 on the field of the best ranked at the end of regular season.
Tours, absolute leaders of regular season with only two defeats, will face No.8 Nice. However, the eight-time champion of France suffered heavy defeats in last weeks, with a CEV Cup final lost to Monza, and a Coupe de France final lost to Chaumont, last Saturday. On the other hand, Nice is less armed and has been defeated in both two duels in the regular season, but the ball is round…they said…
No.2 Chaumont, author of a very good second half of regular season (11 wins in 13 matches, as well as first Coupe the France in club’s history, last Saturday), after last minute’s changes will face No.7 Tourcoing, who has been defeated (with two 3-1) in regular season.
Fourth placed and CEV Challenge Cup winners Narbonne will face Sete, in what should be the most balanced series, while No.3 Montpellier will face No.6 Paris. Despite Montpellier remain the duel’s favorite, they suffered several absences and had to remodel its roster urgently with the arrival of Luka Basic. Moreover, team from country’s capital have a formidable offensive duo, Lawani and Kujundzic, and they validated their ticket to the Play-Offs with a couple of successes against Nice (1-3) and…Montpellier itself (3-0) on the last two matches of the regular season.
About playdowns, they will be a mini-championship with home and away matches (10 games) involving the teams ranked 9th to 14th in regular season.
Points are assigned as follows before the start of the competition:
0 points for 14th
3 for 13th
6 for 12th
9 for 11th
12 for 10th
15 for 9th.
This is the big new of this season.
Thus newcomers Plessis-Robinson, who ended the regular season at 9th place, will start playdowns with 15 points while the last-placed, titleholders AS Cannes, will start with 0 and the 13th Cambrai with 3. Just ahead, Toulouse, 12th, while 11th, is Poitiers and 10th Nantes, currently with 12 points.
All are our photos 🙂
