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Opinion
Alfredo RelañoChristmas, Omicron and LaLiga

Christmas, Omicron and LaLiga

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Tonight and tomorrow we will raise our glasses with some apprehension. The Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire. We are not yet completely sure if it produces fewer effects or why it still gets the vast majority of us who are fully vaccinated, but it continues at breakneck speed, as if fuelled by the need to sabotage our natural desires to meet and embrace family and friends.

This is a problem for all of us but also for one of our favourite interests (especially those of us who meet every day at AS, either doing it or following it), and that is sport, which over recent weeks has been adjusting its schedules so much that there is little room left for postponed matches. And that forces additional measures, some of which seem draconian.

Draconian LaLiga measures

LaLiga's measures are the same as those taken last season, when the championship was able to be resumed (and completed) with extremely cautious protocols that were accompanied by certain deterrent threats of an even more draconian nature, but which worked. One of them is that you must show up to play even if you only have five first teamers available, provided you can complement them with some of the youth team to reach 13.

The other rule is that if you can't even get a five plus eight combo together, the match can indeed be postponed... the first time. Only the first time. There is no second postponement, but instead you forfeit the match 0-3.

'Merry Christmas' despite the problems

Such extreme measures felt justified last year because there was little time to complete the league with the European Championships lined up for the summer. There is no equivalent in 2022 in the summer… but the World Cup looms at the end of the year. The next LaLiga season is set to kick off in the second week of August, and will then be interrupted on 21 November for the tournament in Qatar and will restart again afterwards. That's all there is to it. In addition, there is a fixed date in June.

So this means that we can't carry over games this season, especially if we consider that we have seven Spanish teams in European competition. It is a bad solution to a bad problem, but there is no other solution. All that said, and in spite of everything, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.