Saint-Etienne manager Pascal Dupraz has reportedly asked his Muslim players not to fast during Ramadan, following their loss last week.
The Ligue 1 side are currently in a tough battle to stay in France's top tier this season and are currently third bottom, in the relegation play-off place.
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Their chances of staying up, or at least staying out of the play-off, were handed a huge blow last weekend when they were beaten by fellow strugglers Lorient, in a 6-2 smashing.
It left Dupraz's side four point behind their rivals, with Clermont Foot a point about Saint-Etienne in 17th, with just seven games left to save themselves.
According to L'Equipe, via Get French Football News, the manager has now asked the Muslim players in his team, which is about two thirds of his side, to not fast, in a desperate attempt to keep his team up.
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Following the defeat last week, the manager called it a 'collective catastrophe.' "I explain the defeat by my responsibility," the manager told Amazon Prime Video.
"The responsibility of the coach is to repeat to your players that football commands respect.
"When we start the way we did, you can’t make a big deal of it under the pretext that we were leading 2-0. You have to respect the fundamentals, it’s vital, and it’s what we didn’t know how to do.
"It’s a collective catastrophe, a sin of pride, a vain attitude, not an attitude that belongs to a professional player.
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"On the road to redemption, there remains seven matches and whatever happens with the other scores, we’ll be in the relegation play-off spot after this matchday.
"It’s a failure, I deplore it and I take responsibility for it. In our behaviour, our attitudes, we thought too quickly that we were going to win 2-0. The attitudes weren’t sufficient for what we had to do."
Dupraz has been happy to criticise his players in public previously, especially club captain Wahab Khazri and he is expected to make changes to try and keep his team in the top tier.
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However, asking players to stop fasting doesn't seem likely to help and Karim Benzema recently proved that Ramadan isn't a hindrance.
The Real Madrid striker was fasting ahead of his side's Champions League win over Chelsea, and didn't break it until 13 minutes before kick off, and then went on to score a hat-trick.
In Germany a referee even stopped the game to allow a player to break his fast, with Mainz 05 player Moussa Niakhate able to take on water and a sports drink during a match.
The 26-year-old defender thanked the referee for the gesture, with the German FA confirming it wasn't a directive to do so but they did welcome the move.
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During Ramadan, which this year runs from April 1st to May 1st, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset each day.
Ryan Sidle