On June 13, coach Gustavo Insua’s driver was called to take home the River Plate team after the Copa Libertadores draw against Junior in Colombia.
Two days later, Insua tested positive for Covid-19, along with more than a dozen Millonario players, in an outbreak that would affect up to 22 members of the first team of Núñez’s club and leave them severely disabled as the football calendar progressed.
The net result was that midfielder Enzo Perez had to score in the Libertadores’ remarkable win over Santa Fe last week.
However, while those young, healthy professionals have experienced little more than tedious isolation and inconveniences related to the virus, Insua, 58, has been very lucky.
His condition deteriorated temporarily and, after several days in intensive care in critical condition, he died on Wednesday at a hospital near his home in Grand Bourg, Buenos Aires province.
It has the latest victim of a pandemic that continues to ravage almost the entire South American continent and now jeopardizes the celebration of the Copa America on Argentine soil.
It’s barely been a week since the tournament, already a year behind schedule due to the coronavirus, lost the first of its two co-hosts.
Colombia fought tooth and nail to retain the Cup despite internal protests and bloody street clashes across the country: the clash between Junior and River in Barranquilla unfolded amid gunfire and explosions, as the visitors interrupted their warm-up afterwards breathing tears.
However, CONMEBOL will eventually strip Colombia of its hosting duties. It’s a decision taken reluctantly but one that became inevitable given the scenario on the ground.
Argentina’s government proved on Wednesday it had won the governing body’s bid to host the entire tournament, which begins on June 11.
“We will have to first comply with the component to which we have committed,” Minister Santiago Cafiero told Radio La Red. “Argentina has committed to hosting a component of the Copa America. We’re running that other component.
The next day, after an assembly between President Alberto Fernández and his CONMEBOL counterpart, Alejandro Domínguez, the same minister was confident that the Cup would take place according to the strictest protocols.
As a component of these fitness and protection measures, all team delegations will be required to receive at least one dose of vaccine in order to compete in the country.
However, Argentina, with more than 30,000 cases and an average of around 400 deaths, is tied with neighboring Uruguay as the world’s worst-hit country at the moment and politicians are slightly divided within the ruling Peronist coalition headed by President Alberto. Fernandez on the opportunity to host the Cup.
“Sometimes big organizations [like CONMEBOL] impose a rule on everyone and that can be a challenge if we don’t perceive what we’re going through,” Nicolas Kreplak, deputy health minister of the province of Buenos Aires (site of two of the possible new sites if Argentina assumes sole responsibility for reception), warned El Destape.
“From my point of view, it would be better if [the Cup] was postponed for a few months. “National Health Minister Carla Vizzotti told TN: “Receiving another 2,000 people with protocols at the Copa America is safe. “
The uncertainty that has hung over Argentina lately casts a shadow over the Cup.
Lately the country has been in a strict lockdown and its Libertadores and Sudamericana participants have been banned (or forced) to play their home matches this week due to CONMEBOL’s insistence.
Most worryingly, from the governing body’s point of view, there is no chance that Argentina will oppose its refusal to allow fans into stadiums, even for the final, a point on which Colombia is willing to be more flexible.
A final decision is expected later this week on the fate of the Cup, whether to allow part or all of the festival to be held in Argentina or move it entirely to one country.
Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela have officially tried to take over the role of hosts following Colombia’s withdrawal. The latter two were temporarily ignored through CONMEBOL, but the Andean nation, which has vaccinated more than 50% of its population (through by far the most productive functionality) in the region, and is reportedly opening its doors to a limited number of fans, is taking itself more seriously as a joint or sole host.
Some reports even recommend that the U. S. could be drafted at the last minute, but it’s unlikely that such a drastic replenishment will take place just two weeks before the start of the tournament, especially since the CONCACAF Gold Cup is set to take place. at the same time.
What is transparent is that any enthusiasm from governments to win the Cup has been met with vehement opposition.
“Let’s be serious,” Chilean lawmaker Eduardo Durán said in reaction to the proposed reception. “The country is going through a massive pandemic, there are thousands of deaths and the greatest fear of the State deserves to be him.
“Today [Sunday, May 23] there have been more than 6,000 cases, another 132 people have died, so that’s the main goal, not a football tournament. . . Just thinking about this choice is incredibly irresponsible. “
Former Venezuela coach Richard Paez expressed a similar opinion, telling Circuito Éxitos, “I don’t think it’s fair to bring the Copa America to Argentina or Venezuela. “
Speculation has spread in South America in recent months: Covid infections are just another occupational hazard for footballers, an asymptomatic groin strain that will have to be waited for and tolerated.
But this was not the case for Insua, nor for the presidents and older clubs in the area, such as Miguel Ángel Hollmann of the Board of Trustees, who succumbed to the pandemic.
This is not the case for Julio Cesar Falcioni’s wife, who contracted Covid in April at the same time as the Independiente coach while suffering from cancer and passed away in May.
Any resolution taken through CONMEBOL will have to take into account the gravity of the scenario and ensure that the protection not only of the players involved in the Copa America but also of all those who will be in contact with the tournament is strictly guaranteed.