San Salvador, Jul 15 (EFE) .- The First Division of Professional Soccer of El Salvador decided this Thursday to postpone the start of the Apertura 2021 tournament as a result of the ban on concentrations recently approved by Congress due to an increase in cases of covid -19.
“The start of the tournament is temporarily postponed until the conditions are in place to start the Apertura,” First Division president Samuel Gálvez said at a press conference after a meeting with the 12 league presidents.
He added that “at the moment there are no conditions to start” on July 31 next and that they have created commissions to search for alternatives.
Gálvez indicated that they would seek financial help from the Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut) and the Development Bank of El Salvador (Bandesal), since there are about 900 players who would be left without income.
The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved Tuesday night “concentrations and public and private events”, such as “concerts, rallies, sporting events open to the public and patron saint festivities” for 90 days.
The National Institute of Sports of El Salvador (Indes) said in a press release that national and international sporting events “may be held, but without the presence of fans.”
As a result of this decision, the president of Fesfut, Hugo Carrillo, requested permission from FIFA to allow his senior team to play home matches in the qualifying rounds of the Qatar 2022 World Cup in the United States.
Carrillo stressed that El Salvador must face the United States and Honduras at the beginning of September.
The official cases of covid-19 registered in El Salvador reached 82,363, of which 74,851 recovered and 2,470 died.
Daily infections have maintained an upward trend, going from 134 infections on June 1 to 231 on July 13, a figure similar to the indices computed at the end of last January.
(c) EFE Agency
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