If a player goes to party and breaks the health protocols against Covid-19, he will be separated from his team for 10 days and will receive a fine of 100,000 pesos. This measure, stipulated by the MX League as of January 23, 2021, represents the first time that the league has imposed general sanctions on players, since, usually, that is the responsibility of each club.
The panorama of infections that has already exceeded 270 positives in all categories, added to the viral images of players breaking health protocols such as ‘Cabecita’ Rodríguez, from Cruz Azul, and Alan Mozo, from Pumas, caused Mikel Arriola, president of Liga MX since January 1, issued these and other measures.
“(Although) most of the players have been responsible, we cannot be in an ordinary plan, right now we must seek an exemplary sanction,” the president told the newspaper La Jornada.
The 100,000 peso fine would represent one sixth of the average monthly salary of a Liga MX player, since according to reports from Milenio, a First Division soccer player in Mexico earns an average of 21,453 pesos per day, which translates to 643,590 per month. In the Expansion League, the penalty would represent a quarter of a player’s monthly salary. According to reports from the Goal site, in the silver division, a soccer player earns an average of 400,000 pesos per month.
The statement issued by Liga MX indicates that the sanction of 100,000 pesos is only valid for Liga MX and Expansión players, so it will not affect female Liga MX players who, according to reports from the Global Sports Salary Survey, they earn a monthly average of 3,420 pesos, which represents less than 1% of a male monthly payment.
“The worst moment”
“The level of contagion in our country is worse than any other stage of Covid-19,” Mikel Arriola said in an interview with TUDN 13 days after the start of Guardians 2021, in which, just in that period, they have registered 114 infections and the suspension of eight games (including Liga MX, Women, Expansión and youth).
“We are being very cautious, I was careless and he sent me to the hospital; you have to continue taking care of yourself, we cannot trust each other, ”declared Ignacio Ambriz, current Liga MX champion coach with León, after being hospitalized at the end of December. In January, Martín Pérez Padrón, a 57-year-old Santos Femenil coach, died of Covid.
In addition to the aforementioned sanctions, the Liga MX announced reforms to the health protocol of the teams: the time of testing was changed from 15 to 10 days by means of antigen tests that, according to the Oncogenomics portal, take 15 minutes to give a result; in addition to initiating IGG antibody tests to detect who has already had the virus. On January 24 alone, the league made 5,250 tests available to clubs.
Mikel Arriola himself revealed that the Liga MX teams have lost around 1,500 million pesos in terms of revenue per match day due to not being able to play with the public. Since the confinement began in March, only five games have had assistance in the stands: two in Aguascalientes (at the Victoria Stadium, home of Necaxa), two in Sinaloa (at the Kraken Stadium, home of Mazatlán FC) and one more in Jalisco (at the Akron Stadium, home of the Chivas). None of them has even had 50% capacity.
During the 2020 Guardians tournament, the first to be completed during the pandemic, 165 positive cases of First Division players were registered, representing 35% of the Liga MX players (out of a universe of 459), according to ESPN reports.
The three clubs with the highest number of cases were Xolos (26), Santos (19) and Cruz Azul (17), while in Guardianes 2021, in just two days, 11 cases of positive players were registered in Monterrey, two more in America, one in Atlas and one in Chivas.
“If they ask me if we should stop, we have to. It is a reality that many people live in and we cannot be oblivious to that. The player must be responsible for what happens in society, we have to be responsible and collaborate with the situation, it is an emergency and delicate situation ”, analyzed Hernán Cristante, Toluca technical director, after the match on date 3.
Covid timeline in Mexican soccer
2020
March 14 First game behind closed doors because of the coronavirus (San Luis vs Puebla).
March 17 First positive for coronavirus in Liga MX (Alberto Marrero, president of Atlético San Luis).
May 22 The Clausura 2020 tournament is canceled (for the first time in the history of Mexican soccer).
July 3 The GNP Cup begins. Mexican soccer returns after the last game (March 15).
July 24 Restart the league tournament with Guardians 2020.
October 16 First matches with people (2) during the pandemic (Necaxa and Mazatlán).
November 25 First league match with people during the pandemic (Chivas vs América).
2021
January 15 First game with people from Guardianes 2021 (Mazatlán vs Necaxa).
January 20 First postponements of matches (3) of the Guardians 2021 due to infections.
Source: self made
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