will be selling Utah Soccer
Holdings, which owns Real Salt
Lake (MLS), Utah Royals (NWSL),
and Real Monarchs (USL).
AUSTRALIA:Rhyan Grant scores
the only goal for Premiers Sydney
FC against Melbourne City, to add
the Grand Final trophy to their
A-League Championship title.
SPAIN:Lyon win their seventh
Women’s Champions League title
by beating Wolfsburg 3-1 at the
Anoeta Stadium in San Sebastian.
BRAZIL:Gremio win the Gaucho
tournament for the third season
in a row after beating Caxias 3-2
on aggregate.
TUNISIA:Tunisian giants
Esperance clinch their 30th
league title victory after
drawing1-1 with Chebba.
TANZANIA:National league
champions Simba edge out
Namungo 2-0 to capture the
Community Shield title in Arusha.
MondayAugust 31
KUWAIT:Kuwait SC bag their
16th Kuwait Premier League
title following a 4-1 hammering
of Al Salmiya.
ITALY:Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic
ends speculation over his future by
signing a new contract to keep him
at the San Siro for another year.
WednesdaySeptember 2
CONCACAF:World Cup 2022
hosts Qatar are announced as
a guest competitor in the 2021
CONCACAF Gold Cup.
UAE:The 2020-21 United Arab
Emirates Pro League season kick-
off is pushed back to October.
BRAZIL:The Brazilian FA
announces that their men’s and
women’s teams will be paid equally.
ThursdaySeptember 3
FRANCE:Neymar tests positive for
coronavirus, along with two other
PSG team-mates. Meanwhile, the
City Football Group completes the
purchase of Ligue 2 side Troyes.
QATAR:Al Duhail begin their
defence of the Qatar Stars League
title, just two weeks after being
crowned the 2019-20 champions.
IRAN:Tractor win the Hazfi
Cup for the second time in the
tournament’s history, defeating
Esteghlal 3-2 in the final.
CHINA:The Chinese Football
Association announces that the
second phase of the Chinese
Super League will continue
in Dalian and Suzhou from
October16.
he continent that brought us love
in the time of cholera has been
ploughing ahead with football
in the time of coronavirus.
The pandemic has posed
serious problems for South
America. Indeed, the presidents of the Bolivian
and Venezuelan FAs lost their lives to COVID-19.
The virus has proved hard to bring under control.
In early September, South America contained all
of the top five in the ranking of coronavirus deaths
per population size over the previous week.
But the continent’s football often lives close to the
financial edge even in normal times. A long shutdown
put a massive strain on the health of the industry
and increased the pressure for a return to action.
Watching football’s restart in Europe only served
to scratch the itch still further, and by the start of
September, six of the ten national leagues in South
America were up and running, with Colombia set
to make it seven in the middle of the month.
The major European leagues were able to wait
until coronavirus had been brought under control
and then improvise a climax to their competitions.
The circumstances in South America are very
different. The administrators have had to plan entire
competitions in an environment where the virus is
still raging – increasing the risks and the problems.
In the opening round of the Brazilian
Championship on August 9, the match between
Goias and Sao Paulo was called off four minutes
before kick-off. As many as ten Goias players had
tested positive for the virus. It was hardly surprising
that this made some of the players feel uneasy.
Roger Machado, who was sacked as coach by
Bahia in September, admitted in August: “We are
anxious and worried. And from the moment that
the Brazilian Championship started, with players
testing positive, with all the travelling we have to
do, this is not going to go away. It’s being said that
2.5 per cent of those who get the virus will develop
serious complications. I ask those who organise the
league if they had a revolver with 50 bullet holes
in it and one bullet, would they hold it up to their
head and play Russian roulette? They wouldn’t. But
that’s what we’re doing today in Brazilian football.”
And the players and their families are perhaps
not the main cause of concern. At least the players
have testing facilities readily available. More worryingA new set
of problems
Football’s return brings plenty
of headachesOff...The referee
leaves the pitch
after Goias v Sao
Paulo is postponed
at the last minute“If they had a revolver with
50 bullet holes in it and one
bullet, would they hold it up
to their head and play Russian
roulette? They wouldn’t. But
that’s what we’re doing today
in Brazilian football.”
Roger Machado, ex-Bahia coachT
is the case of the fans. All games are currently being
played behind closed doors – but inside the stadium
is not the only place that supporters can gather.
Peru has taken special measures to restart its
championship, bringing all the teams to the capital
city of Lima in a bid to simplify the sanitation process.
But they ran into problems in the first weekend. One
game had to be cancelled after almost the entire
Binacional side tested positive. And worse, the
inaugural game, featuring local giants Universitario,
turned into a near riot outside the stadium as
thousands of fans flocked to stage a party. The
restart was quickly suspended, and only resumed
after a two-week cooling off period while people
were reminded that this was a time for fans to
cheer on their teams from their own homes.
But this, too, has its problems. The media model
in South America often uses cable TV or pay-per-
view to broadcast the games. Many fans, of course,
cannot afford these services. The tendency is, then,
to flock to bars to follow the action. It is not only
mass parties outside grounds that can be vectors for
the transmission of the virus. People gathering in bars
is a less noisy risk, but at least as insidious. The returnSouth America
TIM VICKERY