Sports in the face of collapse

Donlin, from Ademar León, pitches between two Sinfín players, in the October 10 game.J.Casares / EFE

The pandemic is putting world sports on the ropes, the elite but, above all, the amateur, without distinction of rank, country or discipline.

It affects the main competitions, the Champions League, the Euroleague, the great cycling, tennis and motor events, all mired in processes of adaptation to new and changing circumstances.

Numerous figures have been infected.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Novak Djokovic, Dustin Johnson, Valentino Rossi, Nikola Mirotic and Kevin Durant are just some of the most striking cases.

The ravages in the most professionalized sport, however, are relative when compared to those that devastate and bring those who do not reach that status close to collapse;

in Spain all, except the first divisions of football and basketball.

Strategies vary by sport, category, economy, and geographic context.

The uncertainty over the holding of the Olympic Games already rescheduled for July 23 in Tokyo begins to resemble the one that led to postponement in March.

Something similar happens with the European Championship that was postponed until June 11, 2021. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin believes that there will be no problem for it to take place in the 11 planned countries.

However, in the middle of this month he slipped: "I also have to say that we could make one Euro in 11, five or in a single venue."

The dispersion of the norms and protocols for prevention and response to contagions is disconcerting.

The calendars flip and overlap.

The stands go from absolute emptiness to the presence of spectators, 5,000 for example in the case of the Zalgirio Arena, in Kaunas, in the Euroleague matches.

The same asymmetry is observed in soccer.

In the Bundesliga, Leipzig has played before 7,500 fans;

in Seria A 1,000 spectators are allowed per game;

in Spain, some clubs and autonomous communities are pushing for a small percentage of fans to be allowed access, but LaLiga and CSD are reluctant.

Comparative torts also occur in Formula One.

Up to 27,000 spectators witnessed Lewis Hamilton's triumph at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimão this Sunday.

Many did not maintain a safe distance, which provoked the reproach of the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira: "It is a lack of respect for all those who are saving lives, in hospitals and outside of them."

Rafa Nadal culminated his 13th victory at Roland Garros in the cold of mid-October in Paris.

The Giro and the Vuelta have overlapped in the middle of autumn.

Bubbles were made to elucidate the last matches of the last Champions League, in Lisbon, the final stages of the ACB League, in Valencia, and the NBA, in Orlando.

The highest bar was set by the NBA.

In the bubble of the Disney World complex, 1,500 people lived together for almost 100 days.

Despite the limitations - without an audience, with 22 teams instead of the 30 that comprise it, a cut in some days of the regular phase and the disappearance of the home court factor - LeBron James and the Lakers culminated with the title in a season that lasted a whole year .

There were no positives and the most notable incident was the expulsion of Daniel House, a Houston Rockets player, for allowing a woman access to his room without authorization.

But the model is unaffordable, even for the NBA itself, which spent about 150 million euros, although in this way it avoided the loss of about 1,500 million more for not fulfilling television contracts.

Now, those in charge are considering Christmas Day or January 18 as possible start dates for the next season, which would make the presence of several stars at the Tokyo Games unfeasible.

It's a sentiment shared among NBA players that the experience was too difficult and disruptive.

“It has probably been my biggest challenge as a professional.

It was extremely difficult, physically and mentally, "confessed LeBron James.

Lost matches

The ACB, after canceling the regular phase in March, managed to conclude the League in the Fonteta pavilion and the facilities of L'Alqueria de Valencia, where 12 teams played 33 matches from June 17 to 30 in isolation.

Some 3,000 PCR tests and about 1,700 serological tests were carried out among the 400 people concentrated there.

“There were no positives.

A very good preliminary work was done and the players understood that we could not afford the slightest failure.

Because bubbles have a problem, that you can get infected.

If that happens, you have to isolate a lot of people ”, explains Pilar Doñoro, specialist in sports medicine, coordinator of the Spanish Basketball Federation and one of those responsible for the Valencia bubble.

Several Spanish teams have been concentrated there during the past summer.

The experience will be repeated from November 23 to December 1, on the occasion of the qualifying matches for Eurobasket 2022 that will be played by Spain, Romania, Poland and Israel, and from November 9 to 13, with a concentration of the Spanish women's team .

The problems in the Euroleague, which already had to cancel last season, are complex due to the diverse incidence and the different protocols that are adopted in each country.

What happened when he rectified on October 14 and lifted the sanctions imposed on Zenit and Olimpia with the loss of their matches 20-0 illustrates the mess.

The clubs had agreed on a protocol that sanctioned teams that could not have a minimum of eight players.

When the sanctions were announced, CSKA coach Dimitris Itoudis said: "With all this, the Euroleague is losing its competitive side and sense of justice."

After the rectification, Jordi Bertomeu, president of the Euroleague, argued: “We knew that this rule should be reviewed and we must anticipate each potential situation as much as possible.

We must remain flexible and find solutions ”.

In football, the protocol signed by the Spanish Federation (RFEF) and LaLiga contemplates, like that of UEFA, that matches can be postponed if one of the teams does not have at least 13 players or if it is not possible to travel by sanitary prohibitions.

Shahktar could not count on 10 players infected by the coronavirus in the match against Real Madrid.

After the serious case of Fuenlabrada that closed last season, the first major impact on Spanish professional football this year occurred when the Second Division matches that had to face Alcorcón with Ponferradina, on October 18, and with Sabadell, on the 21st, they were suspended because several players and workers of the Madrid club tested positive.

However, three days after announcing the nine positives that led to the suspension of the match against Sabadell, Alcorcón and LaLiga reported that the first diagnosis was due to an error.

Handball is the sport most disturbed by the cases of covid-19.

This weekend only one of the nine scheduled matches could be played.

36 of the 90 top 10 games in the Asobal League have already been suspended.

The Spanish Federation and the clubs are studying the possibility of modifying the competition format to make postponed matches more viable.

In the Champions League, several matches have been suspended, including the one that Barça and Veszprém were supposed to play on October 21, after three Barça players tested positive.

Ademar had to postpone their debut in the European League against Chekhovskie for two positives.

The Leonese team and the Sinfin had to play on October 10 a match of the Asobal League with masks, obliged by a regulation of the Community of Castilla y León.

The demand disappeared three days later.

To study and to work

The difference is substantial between amateur sports and professional leagues, capable of paying for medical checks and implementing the necessary tests.

"The disease is the same for everyone, whatever you do," says Pilar Doñoro.

“The big difference is that in professional sports you have a salary and I, as a team doctor, can, if not demand, ask that your social life be much more limited.

Non-professionals cannot be told not to go to study or work.

They do not live from sport ”.

The Higher Sports Council tried to impose the mandatory nature of PCR tests also to all participants in non-professional leagues.

The federations objected due to the cost of this measure, about 80 million euros.

Most communities require a written commitment from each athlete that they do not suffer from or have symptoms of covid-19.

Athletes are only tested if any of them suffer from any symptoms.

If a positive is detected, the screening is assumed by the public health.

Basketball, rugby, field hockey, and futsal federations are funding antigen testing.

The incidents have hit hard at the first exchange.

Six of the 12 games of the first two days of the Water Polo League have been postponed following the protocol by covid-19.

Games have also been postponed in the futsal, field hockey and roller skating leagues.

The coronavirus does not give truce.

Disclaimers of categories

The economic slowdown due to the covid has affected the sporting progression of many clubs.

In Sant Adrià de Besòs there has been a very illustrative situation.

The two basketball teams in the city near Barcelona, ​​the men's Unió Bàsquet Sant Adrià (UBSA), and the Sant Adrià Women's have renounced their categories.

Iván Corrales, former base of Joventut and Sevilla and silver medal with the 1999 Eurobasket team, is the president of the UBSA.

“We are a small club.

Covid-19 hit us in a very good sporting situation, "he says.

“But we decided to be prudent and sensible and we gave up competing in the EBA League, when we could have even promoted to LEB plata (third division of Spanish basketball).

It is annoying because it was a purely economic issue ”.

The female Sant Adrià, with one of the best quarries in Spain, gave up promotion to the highest category, the Endesa League.

The pandemic aggravated the difficulties to find the 200,000 euros that it needed to make a team with minimal guarantees.

The club continues to compete in Women's League 2.

The cases are repeated in many leagues.

The rugby match began this weekend with the absence of CR Santander, which announced its resignation to participate on October 16, claiming that “the minimum guarantees of public attendance at the playing fields, holding the matches are not given and compliance with displacements ”.

The Federation has sanctioned CR Santander with the loss of two categories and a fine of 12,360 euros.

CN Sabadell, the club of many swimming stars and with the best team in the history of Spanish women's water polo, has lost 20% of the 27,000 members, most of them users of its facilities, which it had before the start of the pandemic.