The upcoming World Preliminary Asian 40, the national football team against the list of Maldives team came worrying news: in the latest edition of the Maldives national team training list, even appeared in the new crown virus infected!
The situation of the epidemic in the Maldives is becoming more and more serious, and the players are forced to conduct their physical training indoors in order to prevent the spread of outdoor activities. For this reason, the hotel had to convert the ballroom into a training ground so that the players could practice with the ball. According to the plan, the Maldives team will first fly to Dubai, and then at the end of this month, together with the Philippines, Syria and other teams, they will transfer to Shanghai, and finally arrive in Gusau to participate in the 40-team tournament.
The Maldives is like an island under the epidemic.
Recently, with the intensification of the epidemic in India, the Maldives has become a number of Indian tycoons and Bollywood stars "safe haven". CNN reported that since the second wave of the epidemic in India in late March since the peak, there have been a number of Bollywood stars chose to leave India, go to the Maldives to spend their vacations, including the new generation of film star Alia Bukht.
However, with the spread of the epidemic in neighboring countries, the Maldives has also fallen into an unprecedented epidemic peak. The latest data from the Maldives government's health department shows that within 24 hours from May 19th to 20th, the Maldives had 691 new cases of new coronavirus infections, and together with 1,503 previously detected cases, the cumulative number of new cases on that day was as high as 2,194, of which 1,698 were new cases in Male' region.
As of May 22, the country, with a population of less than 550,000, has surpassed 52,000 cumulative confirmed cases and 120 cumulative deaths.
The news of a player in the Maldives team contracting the new coronavirus was revealed by Dutch skipper Martin Koopman in an interview with local media. He said, "We are staying in a picturesque hotel in the Maldives and the team has to keep fit indoors. Though the match (40-team tournament) will still go on as planned, the situation here is very tough. Some of our team members have been infected with the new crown virus."
The Maldives team was only able to train indoors due to the epidemic.
Koopman further stated, "The Maldives Football Association has tried its best to create good conditions and atmosphere for the team to prepare for the match, but the team has not been able to train on the field for five weeks. Under these circumstances, the players are in a predictable state. We will train on the field after we arrive in China. As a team, as a collective, we have been working hard, but this situation really can't continue. Now, some players have to be eliminated and the coaching staff is doing their best to solve this problem. But from the point of view of preparing for the World and Asian Cup qualifiers, this preparation is really unsatisfactory."
As seen in the video released by Maldives Football Association (MFA) President Bassam, due to the ban on outdoor activities, the players had to train physically indoors, for which the hotel converted the ballroom into a training ground. As for the technical and tactical training, it could not take place.
It is worth mentioning that the Chinese Football Association for the national football team's four matches to prepare a 12 million yuan winning bonus to incentivize players to fight for the win, one of the bonus allocation program is to beat the Maldives team can win a bonus of 2 million ......
At the moment, Maldives' preparations are not looking good. They assembled on May 13th and have hardly trained in the last 3 days. Meanwhile, the team is scheduled to come to China in late May, but instead of a direct flight, they may first head to Dubai, UAE for a connecting flight, meaning that the team's preparations have almost come to a standstill.
