PostedJanuary 28, 2021 at 2:28 PM
In order to fight against the spread of the Covid, the Swiss leaders made “disappear” the usual attendants around the lawns. The players must go (re) look for the ball themselves …
Between quarantines imposed, matches postponed and the schedule turned upside down, will the Super and Challenge League championships be able to come to an end? This is obviously the objective of the Swiss Football League, which is redoubling its caution so that the competition can take place as normally as possible, while taking into account the protection requirements linked to Covid-19.
With the resumption of the championships in this month of january, the SFL has moreover further strengthened these measures to combat the coronavirus. Among the new arsenal is from now on the elimination of the usual ball collectors.
Result convenient: the 22 players must now go themselves to retrieve the ball, during the throw-in. «The aim is to reduce the number of potential contacts with players», specifies Sébastien Egger, communication manager of NE Xamax. The Neuchâtel club received the new protocol last Thursday, in force since this weekend. «We had to call the kids approached to be a ball collector for tell them not to come to the match the next day…»
Balloons disinfected at half time
Instead of the service provided by the collectors (often juniors of the club), twelve small cones arranged all around the pitch have appeared to each accommodate a disinfected ball before the match and at half-time.
In point 11 of the article 10, relating to organizational requirements on match day, the new risglement stipulates that a home club official (equipment manager, greenkeeper or other appropriate person) will be «responsible for ensuring that the balls are provided prior to the start of the match in accordance with the diagram below and that they will be positioned in their place during the match.In fact, this person must also wear gloves to reduce the risk of contamination.
Depending on the evolution of the score, this could lead to a few hilarious scenes though adventure the attendant in question was slow to put the ball back in its place at the end of the match in order to save time or, conversely, sought to accelerate the movement running in all directions.
The absence of traditional ball collectors has already caused some slippage tasty as was the case on Sunday at Rheinpark, during Vaduz-YB (0-0). On this occasion, two balls ended up at the same time on the partially snow-covered lawn, while the game had resumed for a while now. But no one took advantage of this double advantage…