Madrid: The second-division game postponed because of an outbreak of coronavirus cases will not be played, the Spanish league said Sunday.
The league made the announcement after new test results took the total number of COVID-19 cases at club Fuenlabrada to 28, with players and staff members among those infected.
The team’s final-round match against Deportivo La Coruña was suspended last Monday after six people at the club had tested positive just hours before kickoff.
The league said the club accepted the decision to have the match canceled as it was virtually impossible to try to reschedule another date for it. The league thanked Fuenlabrada for is “generosity” in understanding the situation.
The cancellation meant Fuenlabrada will not have a chance to reach the promotion playoffs for the top flight. It needed at least a draw in the game at already relegated Deportivo to make it to the playoffs.
The final berth will remain with Elche, which would have been out had Fuenlabrada earned a point in the postponed match. The playoffs had been on hold since the match was postponed.
“This enormous sacrifice by Fuenlabrada, renouncing the possibility of playing in the playoffs and abandoning what its players had achieved through hard work throughout the season, allows for the rest of the clubs to finish their season,” the league said. Fuenlabrada later said it “was not renouncing” its playoff spot, only that it would accept the decision made by officials. It said the league was not competent to make that decision by itself, and wanted the Spanish soccer federation and the nation’s sports council to weigh in as well.
It said it was still willing to play the postponed match if that was the decision reached by all those involved. Spanish league president Javier Tebas said on Twitter that “soccer owed one” to Fuenlabrada, and that the “opportunity would eventually come.” (AP)
