The Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) classified this Tuesday (25th) as “wrong” the ban on the entry of the public in the match against Brazil, on Thursday (27), in Quito, for the South American qualifiers for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and asked officials to reconsider the determination.
The entity asked the government to “reconsider and review the decision”, taken due to the advance of the pandemic, and “allow the presence of the public for the departure of our team”, according to a letter released by the federation and addressed to the president of the National Committee. of Emergency Operations (COE), Juan Zapata.
The FEF argued that it had complied with its stadium biosecurity plan with “excellent results” and that “it would leave Ecuador in a very bad situation if the country becomes the only one in the region to play without an audience”. The entity had requested a 60% capacity for the game.
The COE decided to ban the entry of fans in Ecuador’s match against Brazil on Thursday at the Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium, in the Ecuadorian capital, to prevent the increase in cases of Covid-19 and in view of the “high transmissibility” of the omicron variant.
“It was a very hard impact for the players to discover that we would have to play without an audience,” said the coach of the Ecuadorian national team, the Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, this Tuesday, in a virtual press conference.
He added that “for us it was a blow” and that “we needed the people, obviously we need the warmth of the public, that transmission of permanent support”.
The FEF criticized the decision, which it considered “misguided”, and questioned the fact that people are allowed to enter closed places where vaccination certificates against Covid-19 are not required. Ecuador has more than 684,000 infected (3,864 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) and 34,338 deaths.
The Ecuadorian football governing body also stated that the country has a high immunization rate. The Andean nation, with 17.7 million inhabitants, applied the complete vaccination schedule to 82% of its population aged 5 years and over.
Ecuador is in third place in the Qualifiers and is looking to confirm its spot in the Qatar World Cup.
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