Lisbon (AFP)
Disagreement on stadiums, on the five replacements, on a possible clear broadcast ... Portugal must become Wednesday (20H00 / 18H00 GMT) the second leading European championship to restart, after Germany in mid-May, but the The disruption of Portuguese football surrounds this recovery with many concerns.
The authorization to resume the competition behind closed doors, suspended in March ten days before the end because of the Covid-19 pandemic, was accompanied by a rigorous health protocol, as in Germany. But unlike the Bundesliga, certain recommendations clashed with the particular interests of clubs, very powerful in Portugal.
The Directorate General of Health, for example, wanted the competition to resume "in as few stadiums as possible". In the end, 16 of the 18 teams will play in their own enclosure.
The two exceptions, which will play on the grounds of the training center of the Portuguese selection near Lisbon, concern Santa Clara, club of the Azores archipelago anxious to avoid back and forth by plane, and Belenenses, which did not play already more in its historic stage due to a conflict between the club and the management of the professional team.
Another example of this deleterious atmosphere, the League's proposal to allow five replacements per match to protect the health of players in the sequence of matches has so far been blocked by the reserves of a single club, the Maritimo de Madeira. This team, unlike Santa Clara, will also continue to play on its island despite all the trips that this will involve.
- "Things have degenerated" -
"Initially there were the instructions of the General Directorate of Health, which seemed reasonable and balanced. Then, when it was necessary to implement them, things degenerated", summarizes AFP Sérgio Pereira, director of the site d sports information "Mais Futebol".
As soon as this 25th day has ended, the president of the Portuguese league, former international referee Pedro Proença, will face his many critics on Monday during a general assembly of clubs on the warpath.
Accused by FC Porto of leading the sling against the current leadership of the League, the president of Benfica Luis Filipe Vieira admitted Monday to have been "outraged" by the discovery of a letter from Mr. Proença where the latter demanded the helps politicians so that certain matches can be broadcast in the clear, in order to avoid rallies of supporters who do not have TV subscriptions.
Certain clubs, including Benfica and Braga, have very badly taken that Mr. Proença risks to scramble them with the encrypted operators who pay them their retransmission rights.
The meetings will therefore always be broadcast on pay channels, forcing the police to set up an important system to prevent fans from meeting without respecting the rules of social distancing in force.
This did not prevent the main group of FC Porto ultras to announce that they will accompany their team's trip to Famalicao on Wednesday (10:15 pm), to support them near their hotel and around the stadium.
- Concerns -
Consequently, this recovery raises "a lot of worries among the authorities of football, the political leaders and the general public. Everyone should have shown responsibility, but this is not the case", regrets Sérgio Pereira.
"It's always like that in Portugal. The clubs make noise and nobody has the courage to face them," deplores the director of "Mais Futebol", adding that "each club has taken the measures it wanted ".
Benfica, one of the four teams to have detected at least one case of contagion in early May, has isolated its workforce since last Friday, but this is not the case for the generality of clubs.
On the sporting front, the return of the championship will allow the leader Porto and his dolphin the Benfica to restart their race in two, while only one point separates them and that Braga, third, follows at 14 lengths from the head of the classification.
The federation has also been authorized to organize the final of the Portuguese Cup, which will also oppose Porto and Benfica, but has still not announced the date of the meeting which, according to tradition, closes the season.
© 2020 AFP