Why did La Liga
Why did La Liga continue to play while Spain was still grieving for the flood victims of Valencia?
While local games were canceled, players and coaches who had connections to the area had to put their sadness aside.
There was no game this weekend, despite the fact that Mestalla had thousands of visitors and enormous lines along Avenida de Aragón, where Valencia’s players came.
Instead, they arrived with food, clothing, and water for the victims of the worst natural disaster the nation has ever experienced.
Floods that have wrecked communities and lives in the Horta Sud, just south and inland of the city.
Where eight hours of rain have wiped away more than 210 people. Many more arrived on foot, and hundreds more cars and vans arrived and unloaded. Silent above them, over a million tonnes of aid filled the area beneath the stand.
The situation was essentially the same at the Ciutat de València, which is home to Levante’s second division, three and a half kilometers distant.
More arrived with shovels and buckets, crossing the bridges that link the city to the most affected neighborhoods.
Ten thousand volunteers, who were transported by bus to the impacted districts when they could arrive at all.
Assembled at the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències on the morning that Valencia was scheduled to play Real Madrid.
Some of the football players they were supposed to be watching at Mestalla were in the mud with them.
The federation approved La Liga’s decision on Thursday to postpone Rayo Vallecano’s trip to Villarreal and Valencia’s match against Madrid. Levante-Málaga.
Castellón-Racing Ferrol, and Eldense-Huesca were all delayed in the second division. Almería-Cordoba proceeded toward Andalucía on Sunday along with the “Dana.” However, everyone else played, starting Friday’s match against Mallorca with Alavés.
Luis García, who built his career in the area from Altea to Villajoyosa, from Villarreal B to Elche and Benidorm, stated: “However you look at it, playing this makes no sense.” Alavés won after five straight losses.
He was the first voice of many and spoke for everyone. “These are terrible days for everyone; days pass and we are still in shock,” stated José Bordalás, manager of Getafe, who was born in Alicante and has 20 years of coaching experience at smaller teams in the area. It is terrible when we view the images and hear the various stories. The catastrophe is the center of football fans’ attention. This set of games should not have been played; I am not sure what my colleagues have said.
Bordalás’s colleagues had expressed similar sentiments. Hansi Flick of Barcelona said, “I might have canceled it if I had been making the decision.”
Imanol Alguacil, the manager of Real Sociedad, maintained that “even if there were no dates [to rerun the fixtures on], we should not have played.”
The league tried to defend its choice to go on as the criticism mounted.
It did not discuss the practicalities of postponements, the challenges of making room in a limited timetable, or the issues that would arise for people—and when have they given a damn about that anyway?.
It did not mention that it was too late now and that it was not fully aware of the horror when the choice was made. Rather, “the best message is to keep on,” asserted Javier Tebas, head of La Liga. In this manner, “money raised” and “visibility” would be achieved. According to one coworker, football’s ego can occasionally match its avarice. It may have considerably more duty because of its representation.
They claim that football is the most significant of the less significant things.
If not always in the intended sense, the standard adage that things is put into perspective when life is lost is accurate.
Because football seems to continue regardless, just like life.
It is not alone; there were a lot of other activities this weekend, including concerts, sports arenas, and packed stores and theaters.
It is simple to blame football alone since it is held to a different standard. However, this is due in part to the fact that it asserts these norms for itself, accepts its position as a people’s expression, and is somewhat unique in that it reflects society, human feeling, community, identity, and belonging.
This benefits the company that genuinely interests so many powerful people. “It is illogical. Diego Simeone of Atlético stated, “But we are in a place where they tell us to keep on, so here we are, carrying on.”
Saying that nothing mattered, that no one came, and that no one cared would not be totally accurate.
There were 241,503 spectators for the seven games in the premier division.
It would not be accurate to state that they did not like them either.
Girona-Léganes and Athletic’s matchup with Betis was undoubtedly full of drama and outstanding games.
Not that there were no stories, no smiles, no celebration, or any emotion.
Sometimes there is no feeling of occasion or atmosphere. Not even silliness.
Fans erupted in laughter as they celebrated Vinícius Júnior winning the “Beach Ball” at Montjuic, where Barcelona defeated Espanyol 3-1, and at the Metropolitano, where Atlético defeated Las Palmas 2-0.
Manolo González, the coach of Espanyol, claimed he was “burning inside” over his team’s collapse and having to listen to Barça supporters jeer at them for going to the second level.
Giuliano Simeone, who scored his first goal for Atletico nearly thirty years after his father, called it a dream come true.
But there was a sense of guilt in every objective and every burst of happiness, and nothing felt quite right or the same.
Not least because the catastrophe was something that was occurring rather than something that had already occurred.
The number of people who had died increased along with the football game and the weekend, as did their sense of abandonment and rage at having been let down.
Since mud is all they have, the people of Paiporta threw it at the king. The pictures kept rolling in: difficult to look at, difficult to avoid. .
The stench, the death, the reports of the mess. Images of the vehicles, with crosses painted on the side to indicate which ones they had inspected for remains.
And the knowledge that there were many others they had not yet examined.
The worry that the figure might rise as over a thousand people are still unaccounted for.
Football players are not invincible.
Despite the fact that they are frequently portrayed as supermen and accused of existing in a bubble that prevents them from being touched.
Julián Calero, a coach from Levante whose village was among those affected, remarked.
The visuals on television are one thing; being there magnifies it five times.
“You realize how vulnerable you are to nature when these things occur.” So many people have been involved.
Rubén Iranzo, a defender for Valencia, had his house flooded.
Solidarity was also demonstrated by the fact that Manu Fuster’s mother, who owns a restaurant in Quart de Poblet, outside of Valencia, provided food for people in need.
Pepelu, a midfielder for Valencia, led those in need to another family eatery, this one in Chiva.
Pepelu did not participate. Ferran Torres of Barcelona, who was born in Foios, north of Valencia, also didn’t.
Flick disclosed that “he indicated he did not feel he could come to the game.” “I completely understand this, therefore of course it is okay.
Some who did play, such as Pablo Maffeo, a full-back for Mallorca, thought it was “inhuman.” He remarked, “Many of us have friends and relatives there, and we know they are suffering.
Whoever makes the schedule ought to examine themselves closely. Money is more important to them than us.
Toni Lato, a former Valencia youth team player from Pobla de Vallbona and Maffeo’s clubmate.
Called it the game that should not have been played, saying, “I do not understand it.
I would have wanted to have been there with my cousins in their pain.”
He also spoke about José Castillejo, a former Valencia academy teammate who passed away at the age of 28 due to flooding.
Osasuna temporarily moved up into a Champions League spot on Saturday afternoon after defeating Valladolid 1-0. By Sunday afternoon, Vicente Moreno, their manager, was shoveling dirt in Massanassa, his hometown. He had been crying the day before the pre-match press conference.
“I genuinely do not know how he managed to prepare this game; he was not in a healthy state. I watched him cry, even though he does not usually express his feelings.
We can not be here talking about a penalty when there are people suffering.”
In a situation that was replayed all over the nation, with the tragedy hanging over everything.
Minutes of silence were observed worldwide, and aid was gathered in stadiums. The Valencian anthem was performed at the Metropolitano, and the players carried banners from the fan clubs in Paiporta and Utiel, two of the hardest-hit municipalities.
Players donned Bizum-numbered T-shirts throughout Spain to urge onlookers to contribute to humanitarian efforts. Sevilla’s carried a message of support in the place of their sponsor.
Miguel Gutiérrez pulled up a T-shirt with a handwritten note dedicated to a buddy named Henry on the front when he scored Girona’s first goal in their 4-3 victory over Leganés on Saturday.
Gutiérrez clarified, “The river swept his mother away.” “The thought of the pictures I have seen gives me chills. She vanished and has not been seen for three days.
It does not appear likely that they will find her alive, but we pray they do.
On the final night of a weekend that everyone might have avoided, Pablo Fornals, who was born in Castellón, scored Betis’s first goal in a crazy match against Athletic.
He wept then and again as he raised a shirt of support.
His voice broke as he stated, “We can do things better, but we cannot control what the climate has in store for us.
We had to play, so even though this was not a day to rejoice, we at least offered people a fun football night.
