European football panics over covid

As if it were a nightmare, a turn back, European football and more specifically Spanish have panicked at the resurgence of a pandemic that was believed to be overcome, at least in what refers to infected players, canceled games and matches threatened to be held behind closed doors, as is already happening in some areas of Germany.

The Real Madrid This Thursday concentrated a good part of this fateful scenario with five new positives (Rodrygo, Marco Asensio, Bale, Lunin and Davide Ancelotti, son and assistant of the Madrid coach). Five casualties that join those of Modric and Marcelo and that served to show that the white sports city, in Valdebebas, is now a tinderbox of viruses, since Pablo Laso and Thomas Huertel are also infected, with facilities that share the sections of football and basketball.

More severe measures

All of them are vaccinated and show mild symptoms of the disease. However the ancelotti set He is in the box to play on Sunday against Cádiz. Positives, in Spain, which join those of last week at Valencia; coach José Bordalás and defender Omar Alderete. It is a situation that again forced the Spanish Football Federation pronounce itself and announce new protocols in the prevention of covid. Players and members of all Spanish professional football squads must undergo PCR tests every 15 days already daily antigens, while formal greetings before matches and tributes such as traditional honor kicks are prohibited. And also to what Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga showed his fears in public. “I do not rule out that matches are suspended,” said the leader of the football association.

Official statement.#Real Madrid

– Real Madrid CF (@realmadrid) December 16, 2021

Spanish football is rolling again threatened by contagion, but the situation in Europe is still much worse. In England they are already beginning to fear a possible suspension of the traditional day of the St. Stephen’s Day (the matches the day after Christmas) to avoid as much as possible the displacement of people during the holidays in a Premier hit by the covid and that until yesterday had five games postponed, all of them during the last week. This Thursday the cancellation of the meeting between the Manchester United and Brighton this Sunday, corresponding to the 18th day, a mandatory measure due to the high number of infections in the first of the teams, with more than twenty positives among players, members of the squad and club staff.

The situation in England

But the covid is also affecting other sets of the Premier. The facilities of the Tottenham They had to be closed for three days after nine cases of coronavirus were detected among footballers and another five among club staff. Manchester United-Brigthon was canceled after the duels between Brighton himself against Tottenham, Brentford-Manchester United, Burnley-Watford and Leicester City-Tottenham were postponed.

A health severity that has led to the demand for covid certificate However, to access the stadiums, some controls will be carried out in the United Kingdom on a random basis to avoid crowds at the stadium gates and delays in the dispute of the matches, so it was decided that only the pass would be required sanitary to one in five spectators who attend the stadiums these next few days.

Leicester protest

Leicester is another of the affected clubs, with nine casualties in the squad, between covid and injuries, a team that has seen its requests to suspend its matches rejected. “We have not been able to find support in the extreme situation we live in. They have canceled games with fewer sick players than we now have,” he said. Brendan rodgers, Leicester coach, speaking to the British press.

The fear that European football will be paralyzed again by the covid led this Thursday to Alexander Ceferin, UEFA president, to implore the players to get vaccinated. In England, for example, only 68% of footballers have injected. “It is a personal choice, but my opinion is that they get vaccinated as soon as possible. All the figures show that with the vaccine there is less possibility of becoming infected,” said the top leader of continental football.

The losses

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European football has suffered a loss of 4 billion these last two seasons as a result of the pandemic. A new rule that would force all matches to be played behind closed doors would mean a loss to each club in the 40% of ordinary business, according to figures collected by the specialized portal ‘Palco23’.

This new covid crisis also hits other leagues. Portugal lived the grotesque situation of Belenenses, forced to play with almost the entire squad infected.