Just ten days before playing FC Barcelona in the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-finals, Atlético Femenino’s plans were flipped over after five members of their first team tested positive for COVID-19 and their school closed for a thorough clean-up. .
Last Friday, Atletico canceled their scheduled training against Athletic Bilbao after previous checks revealed that a member of his team had tested positive and was quarantined. The rest of his first team was transferred to the clinic of the University of Navarra before a new series of PCR controls was carried out in the coming days. On Monday, two members of their first men’s team, also concerned in the Champions League, tested positive, one following control proved negative. The women’s team wouldn’t be so lucky.
At one issued last night, the club said: “The Atletico Madrid Women has been forced to maintain the suspension of its training sessions and the imprisonment of all its players, coaches and assistants following the appearance of 4 other positive instances in the PCR tests. He was positive last Friday that meant the cessation of his sporting activity. In addition, the club has decided, as a precautionary measure, to temporarily prevent all activities and close the Wanda Alcalo sports center in Henares, which has also been disinfected.”
The five positive instances are asymptomatic and remote in their respective homes and in constant communication with the medical services of the club, which carry out an individual control of them, following the rules of the Covid protocol and the follow-up of the clinic of Universidad de Navarra.Array The five positive instances will be retested in the coming days, as established through the aptitude protocol in those instances “.
“We ask that you respect the full identity of these cases.”
UEFA’s back-to-game protocol states that a team can play a competitive fit if at least thirteen players tested negative for coronavirus. If there is no registered goalkeeper among those thirteen players, UEFA will defer the adjustment. Atletico’s first team has lately consists of 24 players from 14 other nationalities, adding two goalkeepers.
If he fails to complete the adjustment on 21 August, he will lose the 3-0 draw to FC Barcelona.
Atletico qualified for the Champions League as champion of the Spanish La Liga and reached the eighth round for the first time in its history. Since their league was cancelled when the pandemic erupted five months ago, they haven’t played a competitive match without getting married. According to reports, FC Barcelona has conducted 4 separate PCR tests on their team on the last Monday and will perform another before Saturday’s preseason adjustment against Valencia, the third on successive weekends.
The remaining 8 groups of the festival will play up to 3 matches in nine days at the end of this month in the Basque region of northern Spain to choose the winners of the Women’s Champions League on August 29. The last originally scheduled to take place in Vienna on 24 May.
UEFA accepts that “while it is unimaginable to create a threat-free environment, the protocol aims to reduce the threat as much as it is imaginable through the implementation of existing medical recommendations and more productive practices. Minimizing the threat to UEFA competitions of the COVID-19 virus is based on rigorous and physically powerful arrangements and on-site organisation, but also largely on the cooperation, behaviour and understanding of the teams, their players, officers and technical staff, as well as UEFA referees, UEFA site staff and all teams. in question at the matches.”
“Footballers and everyone else interested should not forget that their action is a strong symbol for millions of viewers around the world. Footballers have a collective duty to show leadership and set an example in the rigorous implementation of these measures. “
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After traveling the world watching football for 20 years, attending matches in more than 80 cities in approximately 40 countries, I have covered the Men’s and Women’s World Cups and
After traveling the world watching football for 20 years, attending matches in more than 80 cities in about 40 countries, I covered men’s and women’s World Cups and European Championships as a journalist. I also write for The Morning Star and the anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out. I graduated from the University of Manchester with a law degree.