A new set of problems
Football’s return brings plenty of headaches
The continent that brought us love in the time of cholera has been ploughing ahead with football in the time of coronavirus.
The pandemic has posed serious problems for South America. Indeed, the presidents of the Bolivian and Venezuelan FAs lost their lives to COVID-19. The virus has proved hard to bring under control. In early September, South America contained all of the top five in the ranking of coronavirus deaths per population size over the previous week.
But the continent’s football often lives close to the financial edge even in normal times. A long shutdown put a massive strain on the health of the industry and increased the pressure for a return to action. Watching football’s restart in Europe only served to scratch the itch still further, and by the start of September, six of the ten national leagues in South America were up and running, with Colombia set to make it seven in the middle of the month.
The major European leagues were able to wait until coronavirus had been brought under control and then improvise a climax to their competitions. The circumstances in South America are very different. The administrators have had to plan entire competitions in an environment where the virus is still raging – increasing the risks and the problems.
In the opening round of the Brazilian Championship on August 9, the match between Goias and Sao Paulo was called off four minutes before kick-off. As many as ten Goias players had tested positive for the virus. It was hardly surprising that this made some of the players feel uneasy.
Roger Machado, who was sacked as coach by Bahia in September, admitted in August: “We are anxious and worried. And from the moment that the Brazilian Championship started, with players testing positive, with all the travelling we have to do, this is not going to go away. It’s being said that 2.5 per cent of those who get the virus will develop serious complications. I ask those who organise the league if they had a revolver with 50 bullet holes in it and one bullet, would they hold it up to their head and play Russian roulette? They wouldn’t. But that’s what we’re doing today in Brazilian football.”
And the players and their families are perhaps not the main cause of concern. At least the players have testing facilities readily available. More worrying is the case of the fans. All games are currently being played behind closed doors – but inside the stadium is not the only place that supporters can gather.
Peru has taken special measures to restart its championship, bringing all the teams to the capital city of Lima in a bid to simplify the sanitation process. But they ran into problems in the first weekend. One game had to be cancelled after almost the entire Binacional side tested positive. And worse, the inaugural game, featuring local giants Universitario, turned into a near riot outside the stadium as thousands of fans flocked to stage a party. The restart was quickly suspended, and only resumed after a two-week cooling off period while people were reminded that this was a time for fans to cheer on their teams from their own homes.
But this, too, has its problems. The media model in South America often uses cable TV or pay-perview to broadcast the games. Many fans, of course, cannot afford these services. The tendency is, then, to flock to bars to follow the action. It is not only mass parties outside grounds that can be vectors for the transmission of the virus. People gathering in bars is a less noisy risk, but at least as insidious. The return
“If they had a revolver with 50 bullet holes in it and one bullet, would they hold it up to their head and play Russian roulette? They wouldn’t. But that’s what we’re doing today in Brazilian football.”
Roger Machado, ex-Bahia coach
of football is both a morale boost and a health risk.
Indeed, one of the big headaches caused by the coronavirus in South America is the difficulty of social isolation in an environment where people are often packed tight together.
One of the directors of Bolivia’s FA, Adrian Monje, made this point to explain why there is as yet no restart date for the local championship – even though Bolivian clubs will be involved in the Copa Libertadores from the middle of September. With the health protocols in place, he could be sure that, like Europe, players will have very limited contact with other people. “But in our domestic football only about 20 per cent of players have their own cars. The rest use public transport, taxis, and the youngest take micros.” Tiny buses where passengers are crammed in, where the coronavirus can spread unchecked.