A few hours before the match against Famalicão, in round 16 of the league, Belenenses SAD was surprised by postponing the match. There have been several outbreaks in the Famalicense complex which led to the health delegate issuing a decision to isolate the team for five days.
The decision, which Rui Pedro Soares denounced as “disproportionate”, after the Belenenses SAD team was forced to isolate health authorities for 14 days, due to the presence of positive cases as well.
An outbreak of Belenenses SAD occurred on November 27 and a health delegate from Oeiras put all negative cases into protective isolation for 14 days. today [quarta-feira]We were surprised by the decision of the health delegate from Famalicão to remain in isolation for five days. In our case, negative cases were tested on the 6th and 10th day when they appeared positive. In other words, the situation was appropriate for the health delegate of Oiras. Therefore, we want a general explanation for whom it is giving, this is a serious doubt beyond football, he began by explaining to reporters, skeptical about the short-term postponement: “This situation does not surprise me, we have been watching the same thing in England, but we want to know when the delegate received the information to postpone the match. In the case of Benfica, the PCR results arrived at 17, the decision was made at 19.15, and the match was at 20. When did the Famalicão health delegate receive the results for making such a decision in the short term?”
Rui Pedro Soares also took the opportunity to criticize the way the League handles case management. Chairman of Belenenses SAD deplores unequal treatment.
“Obviously there is a stark disparity in the sport. What will the League say about this ‘keep silent?’ At the last General Assembly, it was decided that there would be a different regulation for the same situation and it was also agreed that when a squad is completely isolated, they can only play after five Days In the case of the match with Estoril [0-1]We didn’t leave home for 14 days and played the next. These are two games in which we have been affected by the Covid issue and the unequal treatment that exists,” he added, also speaking of the costs the team had taken on this trip to the north that would not be reimbursed: “The league has a big budget, but it invests a lot in marketing. This obviously got us here during our internship. Everyone knows that football is an activity that has been hit hard by the pandemic. Last year we played a match with Benfica behind closed doors. It was an open year, our revenue with Benfica this year was four times lower than it was two years ago. We got closer to 52 thousand euros because we removed the value-added tax, security settings (11 thousand euros), and private security (4 thousand euros). It was marginally positive, maybe 6, 7 thousand euros. All the costs we have incurred for this game will have to be borne. This is also why I want to know when the health official has the information needed to make this decision. Whether it was that day, or if there was a longer time and it took the day. The league’s support so far has been zero, if that’s the case until now, it must be different.”
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The Blues leader also took the opportunity to appeal to Pedro Proença for a general assembly that would allow for a new calendar design, as a contingency for a possible increase in postponed matches.
“The League has to go public with everything that’s going on. We have outbreaks, the number of postponed games is going to add up and we need to know if this calendar continues like this, before things get hopeless. We’re taking the risk that the tournament won’t end on schedule. This Very clear. Are we only going to wake up to this reality in March or April, schedule a new AGM, everyone is shouting, because the championship is ending and we have teams with three matches? It is a distortion of the sporting truth. I am warning you about this situation on December 29.”
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