Federation decision
“In order to comply with the principles of sport and a fair distribution of final places, which affects both the Eurocup sign and the place in the domestic top league, it was decided to finish the championship with healthy footballers, following the safety and precautionary rules of the LFF competition. Also, following UEFA’s practice with regard to the organization of the competition, it was decided to make the necessary amendments to the LFF’s sanitary protocol regarding the continuation of the championship, setting a minimum number of players (13) that the club must have in order to continue participating in the championship.
There are only two rounds left in the championship on November 26 and 29. “Riga” has become the champion of the Premier League for the third time in a row, the 2nd place is guaranteed by “RFS”, but in theory “Valmiera”, “Ventspils” and “Liepāja” are still applying for the 3rd place. Changes are possible at the bottom of the tournament table, ”said LFF in a statement.
No cases of Covid-19 have been detected in the tests performed this week for the players of the football club “Liepāja”, and the decision of the club federation is not affected. For the last two remaining games of the season, ours are preparing in the usual mode, but yesterday FC “Liepāja” announced the extension of the contract with six footballers – Dodo, Artūrs Karašauskas, Mārtiņš Ķigurs, Eduards Tīdenbergs, Krišjānis Zviedri and Vadim Žuļevs. The contract is being renewed with several more players, but for a number of footballers the contract for the next year was already in force.
Jurģis Kalns, the head coach of today’s Liepāja team of opponents “Tukums 2000”, Liepāja football student, told “Kurzemes Vārds” yesterday: “Let’s be in Liepāja for the game. We have only one positive case of Covid-19 and two contacts. The new players drove in one car. The order of the federation was to cancel the training on Tuesday morning when we learned about the positive case. Today (Wednesday – A.S.) we trained and everything is fine. “
Today’s game Jurģis Kalns will not be allowed to lead from the Tukums team technical zone, because he has been disqualified for one game due to the yellow cards accumulated during the season. For the same reason, on Monday, the match against “Valmiera” should not be led by “Liepāja” head coach Dmitrijs Mološas, but in the second half – “Valmiera” head coach Tamazs Pertija.
However, in the reserve field of “Daugavas” stadium, such a disciplinary penalty for coaches is usually not a big obstacle to lead their team, because the stands are very close to the field.
At the end of the season, the Tukums team has won three of the last five games and almost reached the penultimate “Mettu”. J. Kalns admits that his unit is militant, but points to the uncertainty at the finish of the Premier League about playing the season to the end: “Last week we started talking about the fact that every training can be the last, but now we have reached the point where we will have to play, although I was sure the season would end. ”
If the people of Tukums can still collect the line-up for the league games, then in some other teams the situation is critical. Unofficial information shows that “Daugavpils” considering going to Valmiera today with seven football players, goes on the field and not to start the game at all. This would mean that the people of Valmiera would get to three points without a fight.
The completion of the Tukums 2000 season on the pitch, on the one hand, provides an opportunity to reach the necessary points to overtake Mettu in the overall standings. On the other hand, in case of premature termination of the season, the people of Tukums would have the opportunity to argue before the next season that they deserve a place in the 2021 Super League, because this year the team was not given the opportunity to finish the season.
It cannot be ruled out that “Tukums 2000” will participate in the Super League next season, because no one in Latvian football organizations is really interested in seeing Daugavpils “Locomotives” in the strongest division of the Latvian Championship, over which the shadow of suspicion of negotiating games falls.
Without goalkeepers, but with Cain
Football club “Jelgava” on November 22 announced that one of the club’s players fell ill with Covid-19, but another 18 footballers and two coaches had the status of contact persons. “Following the decision of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the team went into quarantine until December 2. This means that it is not possible for “Jelgava” to participate in the Premier League games scheduled for November 26 and 29, “the club said in a statement.
Team director Ainars Tamisars this week on Twitter explained that all the team’s goalkeepers are in quarantine and “there are eight footballers healthy, unquarantined and of legal age, one of whom has not trained and is a coach for a long time, and the other is kovid-positive. And one coach who is not registered as a footballer. No doctors, no administrators… ”
Of course, one of the entered players is the team coach and Aleksandrs Cauņa, who was once considered one of the best Latvian football players of all time, who has not trained for a long time.
A. Tamisārs said to “Kurzeme Vārds” yesterday: “If it is decided to continue the season, then we will continue, we will play. To us [spēlēt gatavi] there are six footballers, plus Cauņa. We are trying to catch the players of the departed doubles team from all over Latvia, who have not trained for two weeks, but maybe they will endure. Must pass.
If the decision had been made in time, everything would have been fine. If it had been said two weeks ago that the doubles championship was coming to an end, that the two applications would be combined, that we would play if there were 13 footballers. It turns out that the doubles are on vacation, they don’t train for two weeks, but now they say that the games will not be moved because we have players in the doubles team.
We are used to all decisions being made late. Now, at least, the federation has managed to equate amateurs with the status of professionals. Thank you for that, but the biggest problem is that there is almost no one standing at the gate. Nothing could be done, but another reason could have been devised for Tuesday’s decision. It has now been pompously announced for sporting principles and fair designations that do not correspond to reality. If “Rigai” has 16 patients, “Daugavpils” and most of us football players are quarantined, U18 footballers are not allowed to play, but other clubs are not so much affected, then words about sports principles are questionable. “