On May 22, in Beijing, the Vietnamese "soha" media revealed that Martin Koopman, the head coach of the Maldives national soccer team, had revealed that the team was facing a lot of challenges. They are training in a quarantine hotel, and to make matters worse, a player in the team has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus.
Vietnamese media further pointed out that the domestic epidemic in the Maldives has reared its head again, which has directly affected the national team's preparations. Despite being together, the players were unable to travel to the training ground. Faced with many difficulties, the Maldives national team had to seek support from the hotel. The latest pictures show that the entire national team is borrowing a hotel room for closed training.
"The hotel we are currently staying in is in pretty good condition. The whole team has to stay indoors to stay healthy. The upcoming games will still go on as planned, but the situation is very serious at the moment. The trend of the new crown epidemic is unpredictable and we already have one member of the team diagnosed." Martin Hoffman told reporters.
The Maldives will face off against the national football team on June 3, according to the World Qualifier schedule. A representative of the Maldives Football Federation revealed that the team can only train in isolation upon arrival in China, as China has implemented strict quarantine measures. Considering the current epidemic situation, it is not yet possible to determine the time of the Maldives national team's trip to China.
It was reported that the Maldives were scheduled to enter the country on May 30 on a chartered flight along with Syria and the Philippines, but Syria, another opponent of the national football team, also encountered trouble. In the May 19 training session, only seven players from the Syrian team showed up, and many of the players playing abroad were unable to fly to Dubai for the training session, not to mention that some of the players didn't even get visas to enter China.
While the roster of the Philippine national team is still not finalized, head coach Scott Cooper is still waiting for four newly naturalized players to complete the naturalization process. The new crown epidemic has made travel more difficult and the naturalization process more complicated as a result.
