• Fuenlabrada.And what about our families?
  • Controversy: why did Fuenlabrada travel with infected people?

In the meetings that the League organized in May with the doctors of the soccer clubs, a question always remained unanswered. "And what if there is a contagion?" . The mixture of optimism, financial need and determination of Javier Tebas and his men made the most dangerous variant that Spanish football was facing to be sidelined. The president was convinced that if the protocol was followed, if the players and team members were responsible, there would be no contamination in the locker room.

His voluntaristic vision came true for many weeks, as the virus's strength seemed to drop and the effects of confinement held the population back. Everything was going smoothly, with daily matches and a carousel of tests -in theory- clean. The brave program to finish the championship in mid-July worked in First and seemed to go well in Second , until last Monday afternoon the unwanted gap opened.

These don't play. The utilleros have not even come to prepare the costumes, ”Deportivo employees announced frightened at seven in the afternoon. Nobody from the Fuenlabrada had appeared in Riazor . An outbreak of contagions kept them in the hotel and put Spanish football on the verge, which woke up yesterday in combustion. Press releases, formal protests, cross reproaches, deadlines and a confined club waiting to know how many of its members had fallen ill.

Deportivo-Fuenlabrada, the key game to settle the relegation and promotion playoff, was postponed in a controversial decision made at the last minute by the League, the Federation and the Higher Sports Council. The three met telematically as a matter of urgency when they learned about the last minute part that arrived from Galicia: "Seven infected in Fuenlabrada plus four others who have not traveled."

With little time, the governing bodies of national football put options, pros and cons on the table, while the teams jumped on all the fields of Segunda to warm up now. The League, when it launched its calendar, left room at the end of July in case such a situation occurred. They preferred to condense the days to the maximum, playing every three days, so that there were free dates before August, at the risk of some cancellation due to infections.

A controversial decision

However, the inertia was good, everything was about to go round, it seemed that the plan would succeed ... Until the outbreak of Fuenlabrada emerged. So, what to do? "We supported the decision they made," they simply say from the CSD, the government leg of the tripod that governs national football. Moncloa's enthusiasm for relaunching soccer and for its successful closure is no secret.

The other two, Liga and Federación, with their classic quarrels, more or less agreed on the basics. "You have to play yes or yes, it is the best", they agreed before the Second match grid, where they only separated Deportivo-Fuenlabrada. It was a danger that before the panorama of the Madrid club, with seven positive cases already detected, that match would be disputed.

Devilish Results

"With any situation he was going to get involved," confess sources who attended that meeting to the limit. They did not imagine that this lame day would have such diabolical results. Because the victories of Albacete and Lugo sentenced Deportivo Segunda B and the results of the contenders for the promotion playoff left Fuenlabrada only one point away from reaching them. Almost all the clubs later protested, some for having competed unequally with their rivals and others for fear of contagion.

The curly curl came in the Rayo Vallecano locker room, in the fight for promotion and forced to leave a footballer ( Qasmi ) out of eleven after confessing that on Saturday he had dinner with a colleague from Fuenlabrada, with whom he shares an agent.

In La Coruña yesterday they directly asked for the day to be repeated, at the same time that they were studying legal actions when they understood that the competition was adulterated due to not being able to play all the games at the same time. Now, without saving options, they must play in a few days the pending appointment with an opponent who needs a draw. "How am I going to ask my players to train fully now?" Asks Fernando Vázquez , the sports coach, who does not understand how the whole day was not postponed so that, later, they all played at the same time.

The League and its protocol

In the League they defend themselves by looking at the scene of the country. "Who tells you that, if we wait a week, we don't have new shoots in more clubs?" They said yesterday. Leaving a game out, they insist, was the least harmful way out for most. There are contracts of players that end and clubs that, with nothing to fight for and like crazy for vacations, would have suffered to keep their professionals at a certain competitive level during this break, waiting for the improvement of the Fuenlabrada's health.

The health authorities also asked for accounts, both in Madrid and Galicia, when they did not understand how Fuenlabrada could have moved with the suspicion of the virus in the suitcase. "The clubs travel encapsulated, on private flights and without contact with the outside," they argue in the League before the accusations of negligence that were spilled from the City Council of La Coruña, the Xunta or even the Community of Madrid, ready to open an investigation. . It does not enter their heads that before the threat of the virus, the club would appear in another city. Fuenlabrada's defense is to cling to the League's protocol of action, which in the face of contagion required its isolation. And the rest to play. A risky route, as has finally been demonstrated.

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