French league shuffles kick-off times in face of heatwave

The kick-off for the Ligue 1 match between Monaco and Strasbourg on Sunday has been put back almost two hours "due to the heatwave", the French League (LFP) announced on Friday.

The game was scheduled for 5:05pm local time but temperatures in the Principality are forecast to hit 33 degrees Celsius that afternoon.

"In anticipation of high temperatures at the Stade Louis-II in the afternoon, the kick-off of the Monaco-Strasbourg match... has been shifted to 7pm (local time) on the same day," the LFP said in a statement.

It is the second fixture switch for the second round of games. The LFP announced on Thursday that the Lyon-Montpellier match on Saturday had been pushed back two hours to 7pm local time. Temperatures of 36 Celsius are forecast for Lyon that afternoon.

"I congratulate and thank the League for this change of schedule," Monaco coach Adi Hutter told a press conference.

"The heat is very intense at the moment. We saw it at Clermont last Sunday, where a lot of people cramped up."

Monaco won their opener 4-2 away to Clermont last Sunday afternoon as temperatures touched 30 degrees.

On Friday, 19 of France's departments were placed on heatwave alert by the country's meteorological office with temperatures likely to exceed 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the country.