Science agrees with LaLiga

In the months of May and June 2020, LaLiga defended, in the face of criticism of resuming the competition, that the risk of contagion by COVID between players during a match was almost non-existent and more applying the protocol that they elaborated for the restart of the League. A study by the Rey Juan Carlos University would support that there is the minimum risk of transmission after having analyzed the minutes that footballers are within two meters of a rival in the course of a meeting.

The study entitled 'Distance Between Players During a Soccer Match: The Influence of Player Position' followed a total of 1,670 players in 60 games from the Spanish league (30 from LaLiga Santander and another 30 from LaLiga Smartbank). The objective was clear: “We are interested in the time that a player remains at a distance of less than 2 meters from an opponent, which has a series of consequences, from the risk of contagion during a football match to understanding the tactical performance of the players during the attack and defense phases “.

The criticism and fear in the return of football was that the players could not respect the minimum distance of two meters. And this research has sought to calculate how long that measure was actually breached throughout an encounter. For it, the study has analyzed each player and see what interaction he had with the rest of the footballers in a distance of less than two meters. The result was the following: “When the position of the player is taken into account, we observe that theGoalkeepers are those with the least exposure (less than 1 minute), while forwards are the players with the highest accumulated time values ​​(about 21 minutes). In this sense, defense-forward interactions are the most frequent. To our knowledge, this is the largest data study that describes the proximity between soccer players. Therefore, we believe that these results may be crucial for the development of epidemiological models aimed at predicting the risk of contagion between players. ” Being 5 and a half minutes the maximum that two same players have remained within that distance throughout the game. The rest of the players spend a residual time (just a few seconds) breaking that safety distance two meters.

Between one minute and 21 on average, of the 90 that a game lasts, they are less than two meters from an opponent. What it makes transmission by COVID very complicated during an encounter and even more so when it is outdoors. This study supports the theory that LaLiga had, that with the protocol of returning to training and matches (with continuous screening through PCR and antigen tests, in addition to other measures such as the prohibition of using changing rooms) and the reduced time that remain within two meters during the game, the risk of contagion was practically zero. Being the risk of contagion in family and social contacts.

The Mediacoach tool was used for the investigation. A tactical analysis tool created by LaLiga. Ricardo Resta, director of Mediacoach, is also one of the authors of this study, like Roberto López del Campo, also linked to the Mediacoach project through LaLiga.