Recovery benched
It is sometimes said that football is all consuming, which in this case might wind up being true. In the worst way possible.
Source: Instagram @nocmaldives
On 9 August 2021, at 5:30 PM, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih tweeted; "Exciting news! Maldives has been selected as the hosts for this year’s SAFF Football Championship to be held in October. My congratulations to @MaldivesFA [Football Association of Maldives] and others in the sports fraternity who worked hard to make this possible."
This during a time when cases, in almost all South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) countries, are surging with health authorities at a near loss as to how to cope; especially in the face of the Delta variant native to the region — the variant originates from India.
Indeed while the region has, seemingly for the most part, finally gotten a handle on vaccinations, this also seems to have prompted a series of poor decisions on the part of political leaders. Sidelining the views of a majority of health professionals, some have been keen to get bodies back to work while others have been happy to embrace unprecedentedly long public holidays with superficial restrictions that only paid lip-service to social distancing and other preventative measures.
One might be forgiven for the rush to “get back to normal” had legitimate concerns not been raised about similar recent events like Euro 2020 and even the Olympics. In early July Europe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), saw a 10 percent rise in COVID-19 infections after cases had been in decline for two months. Hundreds of football fans returning from London and St Petersburg tested positive and the WHO urged cities to closely monitor stadiums and travel before and after matches. Yet we are happy to pack a regional football tournament into the heart of an already packed capital all in the name of appeasing “fans” and chalking up public relations successes to the government and the local FA while the public, and health sector, may wind up paying an extremely steep price.
Even as the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) was insistent that allowed stadium attendance numbers "fall under the responsibility of the competent local authorities” German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had labelled the association “irresponsible” saying, “I cannot explain why UEFA is not being sensible... I suspect it is due to commercialism.” In the UK alone the highest number of cases since January were recorded in the aftermath of the Euro.
Yet we seem only too willing to make the same mistake — with even less of a “pay off” in play. Unlike the Euro, the Maldives, by hosting the championships, can hope to gain very little in terms of tourism and are at significantly more risk. Whereas upwards of 70 percent of the population are concentrated in the capital where the matches will be hosted, the economic gains appear insignificant. However the nation will be putting their premier players, their families & loved ones, and the football loving crowds, both local and those possibly arriving from abroad to cheer on their teams, at imminent risk — exposing them to possibly the most virulent strain of the pandemic.
Across the region health workers are now anxiously on the lookout for Delta Plus which occurs when Delta variant transmissions are so high as to lead to further mutations. This is possibly the worst time to risk adding more hurdles to the nation’s recovery efforts.
