With the ultimate showdown in the Asian zone of the national football World Qualifier 40 about to kick off, the Maldives, one of the strongest rivals of our soccer team, has suffered an unfavorable and unexpected situation:
Players have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus in the latest edition of the Maldives training squad roster
As the epidemic situation in the Maldives continues to worsen and outdoor activities are banned to contain the spread of the disease, the players are forced to conduct physical training indoors. For this reason, the hotel transformed the ballroom into a training ground to accommodate the players' ball training needs. According to the established plan, the Maldives team will first fly to Dubai, and then at the end of this month, together with the Philippines and Syria, they will transfer to Shanghai and travel to Suzhou to participate in the Top 40 tournament.
Maldives Epidemic Emergency
Recently, with the intensification of the epidemic in India, 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 late March, there have been a number of Bollywood stars chose to leave India and go to the Maldives for vacation. These include the new generation of movie star Alia Bukht and so on.
Affected by the outbreak in neighboring countries, the Maldives is also caught in the worst wave since the outbreak. According to the latest data from the Maldives government's health department, 691 new cases of new coronavirus infections were reported in the Maldives during the 24-hour period from May 19 to 20, and together with the 1,503 cases confirmed by previous tests, a total of 2,194 new cases were reported on that day. Of these, 1,698 new cases were reported in Male' region.
As of May 22, the country, with a population of less than 550,000, had accumulated more than 52,000 confirmed cases and 120 deaths.
The news of players in the Maldives team contracting the new coronavirus was revealed by the team's Dutch head coach Martin Koopman in an interview with the local media, "We are staying in a very beautiful hotel in the Maldives. The team can only stay fit indoors. The match (Top 40) will still go ahead as planned, but the conditions here are really not promising.
A member of our team has been infected with the new coronavirus.
Rivals can only train indoors in hotels due to the epidemic
Maldives Head Coach Koopman further said, "The Maldives Football Association has done everything possible to help create good conditions and atmosphere for the team's preparations, but the team has not been able to go to the training ground for five weeks, so you can imagine the condition of the players. After that, we will head to the training ground again upon our arrival in China. As a team, as a collective, we've been working hard, but this situation really can't go on any longer. Now, some of the players have had to be dropped and the coaching staff is trying to find ways to solve the problem. But from the point of view of preparing for the World and Asian Cup qualifiers, this preparation is really not ideal."
From the video released by Maldives Football Association (MFA) President Bassam, the players had to train physically indoors due to the ban on outdoor activities in the Maldives, for which the hotel converted the banquet hall into a training ground. As for technical and tactical training, there is nothing to talk about.
It is worth mentioning that the CFA has prepared a 12 million yuan winning bonus 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 yuan for a win over the Maldives ......
Currently, the Maldives' preparations were assembled on May 13th, with almost no training in the last 3 days. Meanwhile, the team is scheduled to come to China in late May, and the team's travel route may be to Dubai, UAE first for transition, which means the team's preparation is almost at a standstill.
