At the critical moment of the upcoming World Preliminary Asian 40, one of the opponents of the national football team, the Maldives team has come to the shocking news: in the latest phase of the 33-member training list, there is a new coronavirus infected people!
This unexpected situation has undoubtedly posed a huge challenge to the Maldives' preparations.
The epidemic situation in Maldives is becoming increasingly serious and in order to curb the spread of the epidemic, the local government has taken measures to restrict outdoor activities. As a result, the players could only conduct physical training inside the hotel. For this reason, the hotel has converted the ballroom into a training ground so that the players can have ball activities. As per the original plan, the Maldives team will first fly to Dubai and then transfer to Shanghai for the Top 40 match.
Recently, as the Indian epidemic continues to deteriorate, the Maldives has become a "safe haven" for many Indian tycoons and Bollywood stars. According to CNN reports, since the second wave of the epidemic outbreak in India in mid-March, there have been a number of Bollywood stars fleeing India, to the Maldives for vacation. These include the new generation of movie star Alia Bukht and so on. However, as the outbreak spreads in neighboring countries such as India, the Maldives is also caught in the worst wave since the outbreak. According to the latest data from the Maldives government's health department, there were 2,194 new cases of new coronavirus infections in the Maldives during the 24-hour period between May 19 and 20, including 1,698 new cases in the Male' region. As of now, the country with a population of less than 550,000 has accumulated more than 52,000 confirmed cases and 120 deaths. In an interview with local media, Maldives team manager Martin Koopman revealed that there are already players in the team who have been infected with the new coronavirus, "We are now staying in a very beautiful local hotel in the Maldives. The team can only stay fit indoors. The game (Top 40) will still be played normally, but the situation here is very bad. Some of our team members have been infected with the new coronavirus." The Maldives team can only train indoors due to the outbreak. Skipper Koopman said, "The Maldives Football Association has made every effort to assist the team in creating good conditions and atmosphere for preparation, but the team has not been able to go to the training ground for five weeks. Under these circumstances, the players were in a state of disarray. After that, we can only go to the training ground after arriving in China. As a team, as a collective, we have been working hard, but this situation really can't continue. Now, some of the players have had to be discarded and our coaching staff has been trying to find a solution to the problem. But from the point of view of preparing for the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, this preparation is really not ideal." From the video released by Maldives Football Association (MFA) President Bassam, the players could only train physically inside the hotel due to the restriction of outdoor activities in the Maldives. As for technical and tactical training, there was nothing to talk about. It is worth mentioning that the CFA has prepared a total of 12 million yuan in winning bonuses for the four matches of the national football team to motivate the players to strive for victory. One of the bonus distribution programs is 2 million for the win over the Maldives ...... At present, the Maldives team's preparation for the game is very unpromising. They assembled on May 13 and have hardly trained in the last three days. At the same time, the team plans to come to China in the second half of May, but the travel route may not be a direct flight to China, but first go to Dubai, UAE to get up, which means that the team's preparation is basically at a standstill.
