Brighton cancel French training camp after G7 helicopter damage to pitches linked to Trump visit

Brighton & Hove Albion have been forced to abandon a planned pre-season training camp in France after pitches earmarked for their use were badly damaged by helicopter landings carrying world leaders, including US president Donald Trump, during the recent G7 summit.

The Premier League club had arranged to base their main pre-season preparations at a facility in Evian-les-Bains, with sessions scheduled on nearby football pitches and accommodation booked at the Royal Resort close to the Swiss border between 23 July and 1 August.

However, according to The Athletic, the fields allocated to Brighton were used during June’s G7 summit as a temporary landing zone for helicopters transporting several heads of state and government, among them Trump, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron.

The repeated landings and take-offs left the grass surfaces in such poor condition that they were deemed unusable for professional training, compelling Brighton to scrap the camp.

Club staff sent to inspect the venue after the summit reported that the pitches had not recovered in time and expressed dissatisfaction with their state, leaving the club with no option but to pull out of the trip.

Friendly cancelled and plans reworked

The late change has also led to the cancellation of a friendly that had been arranged against Annecy, who play in the French second tier.

Instead of travelling to France, Brighton have continued their pre-season work at their training centre in Lancing on England’s south coast, where they have already staged a behind-closed-doors friendly to maintain their schedule.

The club has stressed that, despite the disruption and the need to change venue, their overall preparation for the new season remains on track and will not be undermined by the loss of the French camp.

Austria camp arranged as replacement

Brighton are now due to fly to Austria on Sunday for an alternative training camp as they look to replicate as much as possible of the work that had been planned in France.

Their revised pre-season programme will formally begin with a friendly against Strasbourg on 1 August, before Roberto De Zerbi’s side face Roma and Bologna on 8 and 15 August respectively.

Those fixtures form part of what the club describes as an intensive build-up to the new campaign, designed to make up for the training time lost when the G7 summit turned their intended French base into an impromptu heliport.