Raúl vs Helguera, a duel that 450 fans will see live

The football of the new normal is here. This weekend starts the bronze category of Spanish football with 102 teams. A semi-professional category in which the bulk of budgets revolves around box office revenues, not television. The CSD protocol recommended in its day that there should be no public and then advised that there should be no more than 1,000 spectators, a criterion that does not apply in First and Second, where public entry is prohibited. In Second B, category framed in non-professional sports, the competence regarding the capacity is the authority of the different Councils of the Communities following the instructions of the Ministry of Health. In this way, in the middle of the second wave due to COVID-19, we will see stadiums in which there will be some 5,000 fans and others in which there will be no public, as is the case of Navarre teams, where the Provincial Government has not allowed it in the entire territory due to the high contagion rate registered by the community (444 per 100,000 inhabitants reported yesterday by the authorities).

In the Community of Madrid, where the Government decreed the State of Alarm in the capital and in nine other large cities, the match between Las Rozas, directed by Iván Helguera, and Castilla, by Raúl, will be able to register an entrance of up to 450 fans in Navalcarbón. The roceño club has reached 400 members this season, the remaining 50 seats will go on sale the same morning of the game (Sunday, October 17, at 12:00 hours). Real Madrid, Atlético, Getafe, Leganés, Fuenlabrada, Rayo and Alcorcón play their games in the Community of Madrid behind closed doors, but Raúl will be the first to enjoy the sound of the fans in the stands. In Galicia, the Xunta has had to back down and expand the capacity of 1,000 seats in Riazor Because Deportivo had already sold many more tickets, so it will be able to touch 3,000 spectators (the authorities have not reported a maximum capacity, but the club has confirmed that all those who have already collected their tickets will enter). Something similar pretends Racing, which until yesterday had not received the yes of the Community to expand to 6,600 spectators. A figure that can be registered without problems at the Roman Stadium because the Junta de Extremadura approves 50% of the capacity. In Andalusia, the authorities authorized a bullfight with 2,500 people in Córdoba on October 12, but now limits the audience for the New Archangel to 800 people (same capacity at Recre, in the Nuevo Colombino, and Algeciras, in the Nuevo Mirador).

In Catalonia, where the Generalitat has suspended all sport for two weeks, the Badalona It hopes to open its doors, but Nástic has confirmed that there will be no public in the match on the second day after the City Council has requested it. He too Cornellà He decided to play this weekend against Olot behind closed doors after the recommendation of the health authorities. In group 3B, Hercules has complained that he cannot open the doors for more than 1,000 fans when the stadium has 30,000 seats, while in La Nucía (Alicante) a maximum capacity of 800 fans has been authorized when the capacity of the Olímpico Camilo Cano is only for 2,000. Of course, in cases where the door is open, the common denominator of the basic safety criterion is to respect the distance of one and a half meters between spectators (two free seats for each one occupied), control of the flow of entrances and exits, Nominal locations with prior reservation, mandatory use of a mask and temperature control at the entrances. Mind you, then there are clubs, like Valladolid Promises, who do not need prohibitions to make the decision to play behind closed doors, but on its own initiative despite the fact that in its Community it does allow the presence of the public in other fields.

Suspended encounters

For now, the competition will start with some games postponed due to coronavirus positives: Alcoyano-Hércules (Group III), Tarazona-Osasuna B (Group II), Don Benito-Extremadura (Group V) and Real Murcia-Recreativo Granada (Group IV). It so happens, for example, that this last meeting was going to be allowed the presence of up to 6,000 spectators at the Enrique Roca, but yesterday the RFEF agreed to the request of the Nasrid team of suspend the match, due to the persistence of positives in the Granada affiliate. According to the CSD protocol, the clubs have the recommendation (not obligation) to do the PCR test before returning to training and 72 hours before the competition.

“The RFEF understands that it must be each club that acts as host in the matches of official competitions at the state level that regulates the influx of public depending on the health regulations issued in the territory where it is located and its own capacity to comply with all kinds of requirements “, says Circular No. 14 of the RFEF on the 'Return Action Protocol', which contains 80 pages That could well be summed up as “whoever may be saved” because no estate wants to be the bad guy in this situation of economic and health crisis.