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On Thursday morning, Sūduva reported having had nineteen new cases (20 in total) of COVID-19.
A few hours later, the Ministry of Health (SAM) reported a record number of coronavirus cases, with 950 new cases and six deaths per day.
The fate of the country’s soccer championship was hanging in the balance, so the A-League board remotely rejoined the Thursday afternoon meeting, during which they tried to insert a new milestone into the calendar of the A-League.
At the end of the season, the six strongest clubs in the country had one game left to play. The clashes between Panevėžys and Gargždai Banga and Kaunas Žalgiris and Vilnius Knights will likely take place next Saturday, as scheduled.
The match between “Žalgiris” and “Sūduva” will have to wait as needed, maybe even until next year.
However, LFF general secretary Edgaras Stankevičius hopes that the darkest scenario will not be confirmed and that the national champion will be determined by the end of December.
“We have decided that the duel between” Žalgiris “and” Sūduva “scheduled for November 8 will not take place. We have established two other dates and options if the situation is as it is now and the state will not make any changes. The first The appointment is Thursday, November 12. The match would be played after a friendly by the national team against the Faroe Islands (10.11). We have agreed that in that case Valdas Urbonas would play the friendly without the Žalgiris footballers. “Sūduvai” would also have passed the ten-day quarantine period, so that, in theory, footballers could be ready to compete. If all goes well, there should still be time to prepare for the decisive match, “said E. Stankevičius.
Photo by Ernesta Čičiurkaitė / 15min / Edgaras Stankevičius
If this option doesn’t work, the second possible date is November 22.
“Then we would have to play after the Nations League game with Kazakhstan. We will return from this country in the evening from 6 pm to 7 pm. The footballers could prepare and play. Under the current circumstances, the situation is as follows. We hope that at least one of these scenarios is true. ” 15 minutes E. Stankevičius speaks.
He was pleased that the clubs had accepted the two dates proposed by the LFF, although he did not hide his objections. In the near future, the LFF plans to approve new regulations with the A-League leadership, which would make it clear under what circumstances clubs must play a decisive match and how many healthy players they must have for the match to develop.
“There are now about 14 players speaking, but the competition department has yet to finalize the full letter,” said the LFF general secretary.
According to E. Stankevičius, the coronavirus-crowned “Sūduvai” cannot yet become the second team players, because one of them has also been diagnosed with COVID-19, so the club’s second team is currently in self-isolation. .
“We also considered this option so that if the problem is not resolved, the clubs could end the season based on substitute teams, but Sūduva announced that all of their footballers are training together, and a player from the second team has also been diagnosed with COVID- 19 “, stated E. Stankevičius.
Photo by Rokas Lukoševičius / 15min / Vilnius “Žalgiris” – Marijampolė “Sūduva”
When asked if he thinks Lithuania will still be able to finish the A league championship this year beating a record number of patients every day, the LFF General Secretary made no secret that the question mark is still large.
We have all expressed the hope that it is better to be at the end of the championship in 2020, but we all understand and see that the situation is very ungrateful. The numbers are increasing and that worries me. UEFA gives us the opportunity to move on to next year and discover the champion at that time. But that would already be the biggest extreme. Another thing is that we want to find the winner on the field, so we will not really stop the championship and we will not assign places based on current results. We want the winner to be announced in the plaza, even next year. ” 15 minutes E. Stankevičius speaks.
We want to discover the champion on the field, so we will not really stop the championship and we will not assign places based on current results.
Panevėžys, who fought Sūduva in the LFF Cup final last week and won it, also found himself under a magnifying glass, but according to E. Stankevičius, the footballers of the Aukštaitija club do not need self-isolation yet, because according to the rules of the National Center for Public Health, secondary contact only.
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