There's no one-size-fits-all solution to playing through a pandemic
Costa Rican soccer is back, but that doesn't mean other leagues are ready.
The wonderful Hernan Medford wonders what happened to his Cartaginés squad against Liga Deportiva Alajuelense.
I enjoyed the return of the Costa Rican league last night and am looking forward to Saprissa-Herediano this evening - especially since I can watch it on ESPN Deportes as part of my existing cable package.
But the live-action soccer both in the Concacaf region and outside seems to have had a knock-on effect in other nations.
Some fans in some countries are getting antsy. They’re playing there, why are we not playing here?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to playing sports during a pandemic.
Costa Rica could be a model, yes, but it’s a model you only can replicate if your country has the lowest COVID-19 mortality rate in the Americas. Their country-wide numbers would be greeted as tremendous news in Dallas County, where I sit writing this newsletter. Yesterday officials announced we lost 14 more of our neighbors, a sad new high, which is four more people than Costa Rica has lost during the entire pandemic.
For some leagues, it is better to close it down and try again next year. Jamaica did so last week. Guatemala officially called it this week.
As Saprissa president Juan Carlos Rojas told me last week, “In reality, it’s under control” in Costa Rica. The same can not be said of the United States, nor of Mexico, where even if you go by the statistics the federal government has admitted fall short of reflecting the true picture of the virus’ effect, cases are still climbing steadily. And even in Costa Rica, the crisis isn’t over.
Even if you want to put that aside, this pandemic has been a blunt reminder that sports don’t run the world.
Today the government in Mexico City said sports would potentially be allowed to take place behind closed doors from July 1, while the governors of states like Coahuila and Puebla have expressed more skepticism. If they don’t agree with the league’s protocol, are Santos Laguna and Puebla supposed to set up a base camp in the capital and use a facility like the Azteca or the CU? It adds wrinkles to a process that must be crisp and unruffled.
Liga MX owners are set to chat about whether it’s best to annul the Clausura and start over. Without being on the ground in Mexico, it seems like the best option to me. Rather than rushing back into closed stadiums, this gives time to observe the example of places like Costa Rica, ascertain whether or not the protocol is replicable in Mexico and perhaps starting the Apertura as planned in late July, early August.
Concacaf president Victor Montagliani has been reasonable thus far during the pandemic, saying today at a SoccerEx event that he’s holding out hope for next summer’s international tournaments.
I think that’s probably the right time frame.
While part of Costa Rica’s push to get up and running again was Concacaf’s recommendation leagues deliver a champion by June, and Nicaragua (whose ‘Pandemic? What pandemic?’ attitude we’ve covered in this newsletter) dutifully posted that champion Real Estelí and best combined record Managua FC will be their entrants in the Concacaf League, anything international is a total non-starter right now.
As much as I’d love to see the Nations League Final Four or the resumption of the Concacaf Champions League, it doesn’t seem feasible with the different travel regulations that will be in place. MLS and Liga MX did the right thing by canceling their slate of joint events for the year and saying they’d try again next year.
If our brightest minds produce a scientific breakthrough before then, great. Otherwise, it seems the best way forward is to take a similar path.
It sucks. It’s not fair to teams who were doing well or to players looking for contracts or to fans who want to see their teams or even, yes, owners who want to make money. But there’s nothing fair about this terrible situation. We all lose. We’re all hurting.
Sport can bring joy, but it will only last if it’s done in the right way. As soccer fans, we’re actually pretty good at waiting. After every World Cup, it feels like the next one will never arrive. Then, it does. We’ll get through this too, but the wait for a return to domestic action will need to be longer for some than others.