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Eslam Eissa from World Cup hosts Egypt
Photo: AFP
The corona strikes have already reached the handball World Cup in Egypt, although the tournament has not even started.
First the Czech Republic canceled (17 positive cases), then the USA followed (19 cases), Brazil threatens to be the next candidate for removal, and Cape Verde is also said to be affected by several corona cases.
The implosion is close and the outbreaks in width are so extreme that they can no longer be overlooked as a warning signal.
A World Cup cancellation would be appropriate, obvious, albeit momentous.
For handball, which is not particularly well-heeled, there is a lot at stake.
He used the handball motto: Close your eyes and be tough.
It would have been better to find an alternative date.
Many other sports organizers have also achieved this, and even last summer many did without their tournament when the corona situation was much more relaxed and when no proven corona mutants started to go around the world.
A rejection would be a measure that would look good on handball, as it is always considerate and down-to-earth in its self-image.
Character traits that are needed in the pandemic.
Even when it really hurts.
Some players from THW Kiel even managed to do so and they canceled their participation in the World Cup - despite this, they were criticized from their own camp.
Handball is in the process of squandering a lot of sympathies.
Damage to your image can become even more expensive in the long run than a canceled World Cup.
It is not foreseeable that the world association and the host will agree to a cancellation.
Spectators were supposed to be allowed into the halls until the very end, the players first had to protest against it, until finally they saw it.
But one could have expected a little more caution in the further tournament planning in view of the recent outbreaks.
Instead, a quick action is now used.
The skewed comparison with the NBA
North Macedonia and Switzerland were nominated, and the association had previously identified six candidates for successors.
But here, too, one has to doubt: Switzerland will move into the »bubble« of Cairo on Thursday - and will play against Austria that same evening.
The incubation time for Corona is five to six days on average.
So if, for example, a Swiss national player got infected while traveling to Cairo, you might not know until after the first game.
He would have drawn into the bladder.
Handball officials like Germany's President Andreas Michelmann or Bob Hanning had asked the Bundesliga to give them a leap of faith.
It will work with the World Cup, the hygiene concepts before other sporting events were reminded again and again, of the Champions League of footballers in Lisbon in August or that of the NBA in Disney World.
National coach Alfred Gíslason recently said that the handball concept is reminiscent of that of the US basketball league.
But it's such a thing with memories.
Here's a little refresher:
The NBA started its season continuation in Disney World last summer with a five-phase model.
At the very beginning, the players had to travel to their clubs' hometowns again (phase 1), then regular tests were carried out (phase 2), then individual training began (phase 3), then team training (phase 4) and only then - as always It became more certain that a corona outbreak could almost be ruled out in the team - the teams moved into the bubble of Disney World with hotel isolation (phase 5).
Then the game operation followed.
The NBA took almost two months for this entire procedure, it cost a lot of money, it did not offer 100 percent security, there were isolated corona cases here too, but not outbreaks.
The effort was appropriate for the global situation.
It is no exaggeration to call the NBA approach a beacon for sporting events during the corona pandemic.
There is less money in handball, and a national team cannot isolate players weeks in advance, as the professionals are not employed in the national team but in the club.
Apples and pears.
A World Cup is not a club competition.
Nevertheless, DHB and other associations have repeatedly advertised their tournament themselves because their bladder is similar to that of the NBA.
Without the weeks of isolation beforehand, however, it is not.
You can see it in Brazil and Cape Verde, which complain about many positive cases in their ranks - and yet, as of now, will move into the Cairo bubble with an active outbreak.
To understand: A bubble is supposed to prevent the virus from attacking from outside.
It can hardly prevent an attack from within.
In Egypt, the association has just rented four hotels that will accommodate all 32 nations as well as officials and journalists.
A positive fall within a hotel bubble could have devastating consequences.
One only needs to remember the numerous outbreaks in the cruise industry, which also became so extreme because of the large number of people gathered in a small space.
Handball threatens shipwreck at the World Cup.
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