All of Spain now knows these pictures: terracotta-colored facade, white window frames, a couple of young men with masks on the ledge. The pictures come from the quarantine of a soccer team. The Spanish rising candidate CF Fuenlabrada has been stuck in a hotel in La Coruña since Monday.
In zoom interviews from the establishment with the appropriate name “Finisterre” – end of the world – the president of the association tries to get out of the role of Buhmann. A difficult undertaking if, despite four Covid cases in the team – one player, three employees – the rest of the team was not isolated and even started the journey to an away game. There, they had six positive results from players a few hours before the scheduled kick-off for the last season game at Deportivo La Coruña on Monday evening, which is why the game was canceled and both promotion and relegation battles in the second division were affected. CF Fuenlabrada reported Covid cases again on Thursday. There are now a total of 16.
The case has long been a political issue in Spain. The city of La Coruña has turned on the public prosecutor, Mayor Inés Rey complains about the privileges of the foosball industry. “Are footballers a different kind of people who are not contagious?” It is the first source of infection in her city since the end of the lockdown, and she can now forget about tourism, which has just started off again. The Finisterre, the best hotel on site, receives one cancellation after another.
Government is reviewing legal action
The government of the region of Galicia concerned is also reviewing legal action and the Spanish Football Association has launched an extraordinary investigation. The question is: how could this team just go on trips? Especially these days when the number of cases in Spain is skyrocketing and a spokeswoman for the state health authority said the sentence that everyone feared: “It may be that we are dealing with a second wave.”
So the club president. Jonathan Praena claims it was “unjustified not to travel out of fear” and that there was “no focus of infection” until Monday evening. Fuenlabrada was in constant communication with the league and always followed their recommendations.
Praena, 37, is considered a young entrepreneur in the Madrid region. Five years ago he took over the club from one of the many satellite cities in the south of Madrid, last summer he was promoted to the second division. Praena has survived allegations that he was moving money between the club and his real estate company after they canceled a project last summer that home builders had already paid heavily into. But scandals about bricks are almost a part of folklore in Spanish football with its many construction lions.
The league is also under investigation
The relationship between Fuenlabrada and the football league LFP is more special. The son of the same name, headed by Ligier Javier Tebas, serves the club as a board secretary and lawyer. According to research by “eldiario.es”, Tebas Senior was still to charge the club for lawyers’ fees in 2018 of 130,000 euros. Now there is again suspicion of cooperation: Have the league and club tried to cover up the positive cases in a double pass?
The state sports regulator CSD speaks of “serious mistakes”. The association and the league responsible for compliance with the sanitary protocol should have called in the health authorities at the latest when they learned about the positive tests two to four on Sunday evening. In fact, the administration of the Madrid region was informed of the Covid cases of the weekend by the investigating laboratory on Monday at 5:54 p.m. The Galician authorities even said that they were only informed after 8 p.m. on Monday – when everything was already in the media anyway.
In the upcoming proceedings, the league is now being investigated. According to a report by the radio station “Cope”, Tebas is already considering his resignation. The clubs had been informed of his son’s activities since Fuenlabrada’s ascent and had raised no objections. But it had also been agreed that he should stay out of all matters related to CF Fuenlabrada due to a potential conflict of interest. At least he wants to do that now; The otherwise omnipresent official has been silent for days.
Haggle over the game dates
Deportivo La Coruña called on the Spanish football association on Friday afternoon for the temporary suspension of the second division and forced relegation for Fuenlabrada. In the meantime, shareholders and fans of “Depor” are preparing a class action lawsuit. “Put pressure on Mr. Tebas, who could go to prison,” said lawyer Xaime da Pena. He immediately suggests a cow trade: “Maybe things can relax when a league with 24 teams is decided.”
For days, an increase in the second division has been the demand of Deportivos and Numancia, who have also relegated: They argue that the cancellation of the game only distorted the game in La Coruña, but not the parallel games, the remote duel for relegation. The even bigger problem, however, remains the fight for promotion: there Elche conquered the sixth place of Fuenlabrada, which entitles to participate in the playoff.
Should the failed game ever be made up for, Fuenlabrada would suffice one point to pass again – against a deportivo for which there is no longer anything, whose team is in dissolution and that is said to be in protest, probably not at all would compete.
Under these circumstances, it is impossible to predict when the third promoted player alongside Cadiz and Huesca will be known. The playoff consists of semi-finals and finals in round trips. The safely qualified Zaragoza, Almería and Girona have not yet received an update when it could start. Quarantine and legal procedures do not even give an idea of an appointment, the league is on a diving station. Fuenlabrada coach José Ramón Sandoval schwant: “The next season will never start like this.” The coach is not one of the infected. He had the virus in the spring.
