The Brazilian Sports Ministry defended this Thursday the provisional suspension of the Brazilian Soccer Championship, both men’s and women’s, in the face of the public calamity caused by the floods in recent days in the south of the country, which have left at least 108 dead.
The Ministry reported in a statement that it will formally request on Friday the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) the temporary suspension of the tournaments due to the “public calamity and the severe consequences of the floods for the population of Rio Grande do Sul.” state in southern Brazil bordering Argentina and Uruguay.
“It is time to concentrate efforts on supporting the victims, on the reconstruction of the affected areas and on mitigating the impacts caused by the tragedy,” said the Minister of Sports, André Luiz Carvalho Ribeiro, quoted in the statement.
Ribeiro, a deputy popularly known as André Fufuca, stated that the human dimension has to prevail over the sporting dimension at this time.
“The biggest concern now is with the physical and psychological integrity of the footballers, the fans and the others involved,” added the minister.
The three clubs from Rio Grande do Sul that compete in the first division men’s Brazilian Championship, Gremio, Internacional and Juventude, also defend the temporary suspension of the tournament, but the CBF is reluctant to postpone all matches.
The organization, however, accepted the clubs’ request to postpone the League matches that the three have scheduled until the end of May, waiting for the situation to normalize and for the teams to return to concentrating on the tournament.
The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) also postponed Gremio’s commitments in the Copa Libertadores and Internacional in the Sudamericana.
The biggest difficulty is that the Internacional and Gremio stadiums, the Beira Rio World Cup and the modern Arena do Gremio, are among the infrastructures flooded by the waters of the Guaíba River in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul.
In the midst of the chaotic situation and without training or games, a large part of the footballers from both teams joined the volunteer groups that offer help to those affected by the floods.
Some clubs from other states have offered their training centers and even their stadiums for the affected teams, but Gremio and Internacional allege that the problem is not a lack of physical spaces.
“Paralyzing the Brazilian Championship for at least two weeks would be something reasonable,” said the minister in a television interview.
The devastating floods in the southern region of Brazil have so far left 108 dead and 134 missing, in addition to 754 injured, in 431 of the 497 municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul, according to the latest report from the Civil Defense.
The greatest climate tragedy in the history of this region affected 1.7 million people, corresponding to 15% of the 11.3 million inhabitants of Rio Grande do Sul, of which 68,519 had to be sheltered in shelters and other 327,105 in homes of family and friends. EFE
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