Thursday, March 28

Why have all ACB matches and none of LaLiga been suspended?


On New Year’s Day, Xavi Hernández raised his voice with a bitter complaint: “Yes with 17 casualties The game is not suspended, it’s crazy. “The Barcelona coach protested the decision not to postpone the match that his team was going to face against Real Mallorca one day later. A duel to which the Barça team arrived with nine confined footballers (which became seven in hours) by Covid-19.

That same day, just a few hours before, the ACB League hotline rang again, as it has been doing insistently these last two weeks. The call came from Zaragoza and reported a positive case in its staff after the tests carried out. Given the exceptional nature of the day, Saturday and major holiday, the Aragonese club did not have material time to carry out a new round of test PCR to players and technicians to rule out more infections. Faced with such circumstances, the ACB decided to suspend the match that faced the Casademont a day later against him Unicaja In Malaga.

These two examples, practically coinciding in time, serve to verify the severe differences in the protocols established by the main soccer and basketball leagues in Spain when suspending matches due to issues related to Covid-19. The amplified reflection was that this weekend they disputed all the games of soccer programmed in First and Second, while all those of Liga ACB were suspended, including the classic Barcelona-Real Madrid. A full day versus a ‘no day’.

Similar ratio

Of course, the differences do not lie in a very different impact of Covid-19 in both sports. Although the figures are only indicative, since it is impossible to make an exact count, it is estimated that around 100 players and coaches de Primera have become infected simultaneously this last week, while in basketball the figure can be around 50 or 60. Given that in soccer the squads and coaches are around twice that in basketball, the proportion is similar.

Also Read  Hotel Las Clarisas - Information

The reason for these two very disparate realities is merely protocol. In other words, it has to do with the rules that the clubs themselves, through LaLiga and the ACB League, have given themselves (in coordination with the relevant authorities) to suspend matches for health reasons. While in soccer, a strict protocol that only authorizes postponements in extreme situations, in basketball they have opted for one a lot more conservative and flexible to each case and its circumstances.

Since the pandemic started, only two LaLiga matches have been suspended due to Covid-19, both in the Second Division. One of them was the famous Deportivo-Fuenlabrada that closed the 2019/20 season and the other was Lugo-Almería before Christmas, after the Galician club announced the existence of an outbreak that affected 23 persons and forced the confinement of another 27.

Thirteen players

Since last season, the protocol of the competition chaired by Javier Tebas dictates that the matches may be played as long as the two teams have 13 players available and at least one of them is goalkeeper. That figure includes players from subsidiary teams, although at least five of them must have a first-team record.

Until a few days ago, each club could only postpone one game in the entire competition for health reasons, a recently modified rule given the impact of the omicron variant: there may be two from now until March 1. From then on, appealing to the tightness of the calendar, whoever cannot play a game with a massive outbreak of Covid-19 will lose the points of that crash.

Also Read  Record-breaking meteorological disasters killed more than 600 Americans in 2021

The scenario is radically different in the ACB League, where last season they were postponed around 40 matches and where is there at this moment 16 pending matches to be disputed, including the nine of the day set for last weekend. The basic protocol agreed by the clubs is that each team must have a nine eligible players. Otherwise, the ACB suspends the match ex officio unless the club requests otherwise, either because it agrees to play with fewer troops or because it agrees to complete its squad with players from subsidiary or associated teams.

Trainers

Another differential point of this protocol is that the matches will not be played if both the first and second coach are confined by Covid-19, while in LaLiga no reference is made to the technical bodies. The idea, in both cases, is to guarantee that the matches are played with minimum quality guarantees, without the level of the competition suffering.

Now, and going back to the beginning, if this is the protocol, why was the Casademont Zaragoza-Unicaja suspended due to a single positive in the Aragonese team? Because the ACB has chosen to be flexible and to postpone matches due to any minimal risk of contagion. In Spanish basketball they talk about “normalize and de-dramatize suspensions”. That clash, by the way, will be played this Tuesday after no more infections have appeared in the ranks.

Another example of this wide sleeve with the protocol was Zaragoza-Baskonia last Friday. The meeting was scheduled for 7:00 p.m., but the positive of the Baskonia coach, Neven Spahija, caused the rest of the expedition to undergo a new PCR. Since the results were not going to arrive on time, the match was postponed until 10 pm. So yes, without more positives in the Vitoria ranks, the clash was played.

Also Read  Agricultural fertilizers reduce CO2 uptake in the soil

Calendar settings

You also have flexibility from the ACB to readjust the schedule on the fly based on the health circumstances of each team. For this Tuesday a Barça-Manresa and a Joventut-Madrid, but given that the two local teams are not in a position to play, the management has chosen to advance the Manresa-Madrid which should be played on the weekend, which will be when the two postponed duels are played (in principle). In the eaves is the Barça-Youth which also had to be disputed on the weekend.

The problem with this ACB League policy of suspending matches to the minimum is, of course, the damage it causes on the calendar. In the short term, the most pressing thing for the competition is to determine which eight teams will be in the King’s Cup of Granada, between February 17 and 20. The ACB has decided to extend until January 30 the deadline for all the matches of the first round to be played, which determine who qualifies.

The employers trust that this month will allow time to play all the postponed games, but they know that Covid-19 can increase the number of suspensions and they have a plan b in the regulation. If this is not possible, the top eight will be decided based on their winning percentage, regardless of the games that each of them have played. A formula that they were already forced to use last year.




www.informacion.es

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *