Due to the mandatory stay at home after a positive corona test, many football clubs are in trouble. League matches have to be canceled because players are in quarantine. The club WV-HEDW from Amsterdam-East has a lot to do with it: they had to cancel ten matches last weekend.
Canceled matches are rescheduled by the KNVB within 10 days of the week, says Hette Spoelstra, vice-chairman of WV-HEDW. He explains the difficulties this creates: “That means that we have to increase our training space. We have to provide a referee during the week. And furthermore, the competition is growing completely skewed because some teams have played three games less than others.”
“Too few players have to be added from another team”
In terms of organization, the mandatory stay at home therefore causes inconvenience. But the teams themselves are also affected. “We notice that many matches are cancelled, especially last-minute”, says a player. Even the trainer sometimes does not know where he stands. “Last night I thought we had fifteen men and therefore four bills. Now it comes down to only two bills, because of two corona cancellations this morning.”
“No longer canceled due to corona”
The KNVB has the rule that a team can only cancel once due to corona. But if it is up to Vice-President Spoelstra, this will no longer happen at all. “From March 23, all corona measures will be removed, so I would say, as of that date it is no longer allowed to cancel a match due to corona. If there are too few players, you have to supplement them from another team.”
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