Scandalous news has been released in the last few days. At the same time that the Southern Cone is recording a record of contamination and deaths from the coronavirus and vaccination, Conmebol announced in celebration mode that it would be vaccinating 25,000 players to make their tournaments profitable. That’s true. There will be 50,000 doses of the Chinese laboratory’s Sinovac immunizer protecting 25,000 young and healthy athletes even before doing so with a large part of the risk populations of these countries at a time when we have saturated intensive care units and exhausted health professionals.
My astonishment at this news only increased when I realized that it does not seem scandalous to many people …
The impression is that when we talk about football in these parts, everything is licensed. Not so long ago we saw another example here in Argentina. In November, we were in the midst of the harsh phase of the first wave of the pandemic, with restrictions on mobility and schedules, until Maradona died. For a moment everything became possible and allowed. Crowd, join in, circulate without a mask, scream, hug, cry together. The government even opened the country’s borders, which had been very controlled until then, to journalists without first having a Covid test. President Alberto Fernández himself opened the doors of Casa Rosada to fans and threw himself into people’s arms, not remembering that he had been hard and firm for months in his speech about the need for social distance.
Was there any criticism? Yes, some, but almost nothing near the size of the Fuzuê. The justification was “Ah. But it’s Maradona… ”. As if that excused everything until it irresponsibly infected people.
Another of those unrestricted licenses that South Americans give to football has emerged these days as fans, governments, players, and society in general are not responding to Conmebol’s indecent initiative. Nor does it seem to have shocked many people that one of the negotiators was a president, Luis Lacalle Pou, who has not yet managed to immunize even 50% of Uruguay’s population and the contagion and death curve in his country Has shot up. And much less that another supporter of this campaign was none other than superstar Lionel Messi, who sent three signed t-shirts to the directors of Sinovac to thank the donation which, according to Conmebol, “cheered the football family on”.
Messi? The one who is the idol of children in every country in the region? Yes, that is him. It never crossed his mind to request that these vaccines be given to the vulnerable populations in Argentine mansions. Not even the health professionals in your country who are on the verge of exhaustion.
What explains this indifference? I hear from well-informed people that “ah, but football is entertaining people in the pandemic” or “ah, but football justifies it”. Like this? In Europe, the big championships continued to be played safely and without this clown to bring players into the vaccination line.
Another chapter of the same novel is about to begin, with the Copa America played between Argentina and Colombia. Conmebol also wants to vaccinate the national team players so that their European teams release them. There will be sanitary corridors, bubbles and privileges for players, coaches, managers and of course their friends and family. This is in an unequal, poor region where the pandemic is spiraling out of control and new varieties are emerging. Only those who are not vaccinated are the fans who cannot go to the stadiums and may also have to walk after work and resources to help contaminated family members.
Are we all involved in this deviant lack of empathy?
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