The Portuguese Primeira Liga was home to a farce of a fixture on Saturday evening when Benfica travelled to Belenenses. It emerged that the home side had suffered a Covid outbreak in their squad and, as a result, could only field nine players.
Two of whom were goalkeepers.
Instead of rescheduling the fixture, the governing officials deemed it okay to carry on. Belenenses put one of the goalkeepers in midfield.
His midfield colleague Afonso Sousa released a statement before the game, making the displeasure of the squad clear: “Football only has heart if it is competitive. Football only has heart if it is sporting. Football only has heart when it is an example of public health. Today, football has lost its heart.”
How did Belenenses do against Benfica?
They won! No, not really. Sadly. Can you imagine, though?
No, they fell behind in the opening minute thanks to an own goal.
None of the players seemed stunned about the early blow, perhaps offering an insight into the inevitability of the heavy defeat. Goals continued to rain down on Belenenses despite their goalkeeper making several saves.
Benfica were 7-0 ahead by the break, after which only seven Belenenses players took the field. A home player went down, citing injury immediately after kick-off, leading to the ref abandoning the match, awarding the 7-0 win to Benfica.
After the game ended, the injured player hopped back up as though nothing was wrong with him, shook hands and walked off.
Why is this embarrassing for the Portuguese Primeira Liga?
We remain in the midst of a pandemic. The league should not punish teams for their vulnerability to a deadly, invisible virus. When the majority of their squad gets sick, the fixture should get rescheduled. Why is starting a game with nine players, one of which is a goalkeeper, acceptable, but going down to six is absurd?
It’s a surprise that the referees didn’t encourage a Squid Game-esque battle royale among the Belenenses players to find the last player standing. Reward them with some prize. Next time you get sick, you get the day off.
That is, of course, if the league pushed for this.
There is a theory that the Belenenses president, Rui Pedro Soares, insisted upon honouring the fixture, suffering humiliation to guarantee ticket sales. By coming out for the second half, the teams denied the fans a refund.
Comments from Soares don’t paint him in a great light: “The calendar has not been planned well – and the consequences are clear to see.”
What is a Farmers’ League?
To call a league a ‘Farmers’ League’ is to suggest it lacks professionalism. Fans often target Ligue 1 with this insult because of the dominance of PSG and the disparity of resources at their disposal compared to that of other clubs.
The ‘farmers’ element of the abuse suggests that the players have a day job, in this case, milking cows and carrying bales of hay.
For only nine players to be available and the match to still go ahead is embarrassing. This episode was cringeworthy from the off and will only become more discrediting for the Primeira Liga with hindsight.
