First football with public in Spain's 'new normal'

Soccer has given this Saturday an important advance towards its particular 'new normal' with the presence of the public in the first game of the playoff promotion to Second Division B which has faced Marino (Tenerife) and Tamaraceite (Gran Canaria) on the Canary Island of El Hierro.

About 300 people They have had the privilege of accessing the modest field of the municipality of La Frontera, with free invitations, to witness live soccer again, although under strict security and hygiene measures, thus following a protocol forced due to coronavirus pandemic.

Since eleven in the morning, and under strong heat, the Canary Islands have re-launched this new football with fans as live witnesses, which will be followed Estremadura on this Saturday night with the qualifying rounds for promotion to Second Division B which will also be contested with the presence of the public in that community.

El Hierro has been one of the territories in Spain where the coronavirus has had a lower incidence, with only three cases diagnosed since the pandemic was declared and no person deceased. Thus, along with La Gomera and La Graciosa (also in the Canary Islands) and Formentera (Balearic Islands), the island of Meridiano – as it is known – was allowed to go ahead in the process of national de-escalation towards the so-called “new normality “

El Hierro has a little more than 11,000 inhabitants, three thousand five hundred fewer than those that fit in the Roman Stadium of Mérida (Badajoz), where there will also be a public this Saturday, at night, although only just over 17 percent of its capacity will be covered, with 2,500 locations enabled.

The Municipal de La Frontera has only one side stand, which can accommodate about 700 people, and in which about 300 have been accommodated this Saturday, with mandatory mask and separation of an armchair between spectators, both in the own row and in the adjacent ones, in a zig-zag formation, and without mobility throughout the match. The access to the herreño field has been divided into three zones -protagonists (players and referees), press and public-, and all the spectators have had to sign a document to take responsibility for their state of health. Also, they have taken their temperature, which it could not be higher than 37.3 degrees centigrade.

There have been no incidents at the entrance to the venue, nor in the disposition of the fans in the stands. Of course, within the facility there has been a scrupulous control so that all people strictly comply with the security measures, fundamentally the one related to mobility. In the last play before the break, Tamaraceite scored the only goal of the match after a corner, a goal that has hardly been celebrated by the fans. Even radio announcers have had to narrate the encounter with protective masks. Everything will have to get used to in times of pandemic.