Brazil cancels season – with a condition
Brazil American Football, BFA (Brasil Futebol Americano) organizers of the 32 team elite league in Brazil, announced that the season has been cancelled – at least for the time being.
The BFA, who operates the league on behalf of the Brazilian Federation of American Football, CBFA (Confederação Brasileira de Futebol Americano) have cited that so many players have lost their jobs and therefore can’t afford to pay fees and travel and also that the states in Brazil are still closed and the government will not give an indication of when they will be reopening as the key reasons for the cancellation. However, in their statement, they have left the door slightly open to some semblance of a season should the situation allow it, but only among teams willing to participate.
“A BFA game involves a lot of people, from players to the staff to stadiums. The current scenario in Brazil and in the world requires us to protect the health of all these people. Promoting football games, within the situation that we are living in, would be putting the health of all involved at risk. That’s why we initially announced that the league wouldn’t start in July, as it was scheduled.
To decrease costs, initially, the Elite team’s regular season was reduced to 4 games before the playoffs. Already in a next step, we analyze the possibilities of BFA: regular phase and regional playoffs followed by the national phase; cancellation of the national phase and closure with regional champions; regionalized dispute with games within the state followed by playoffs within the region; these were some elaborate options.
In parallel, we monitored the development of the scenario in each state of Brazil, as well as following the situation of the teams during this period. We noted that the financial issues had been drastically affected; both for the teams, with the loss of sponsorship or public forms of financing, as well as the players, with many losing their jobs and income sources. We realize that every day, the situation is deteriorating and there is no prediction of improvement. No one can set a date for activities to return to normal soon.
Therefore, considering that the state decrees that continuously extend the quarantine and the decisions already made in other sports, we believe that the ideal for BFA is to suspend its 2020 season until some prediction of the return of the activities. In this way, BFA can have some form of competition if the scenario develops in time and involving the teams that consider it possible to participate in the competition.
In case there is time, the definition of a model of competition, groups and calendars will be held with the teams who want to participate, without punishment for those who decide not to participate in 2020.”
Coronavirus in Brazil
There have been a total of 126,611 cases of COVID-19 recorded in Brazil to date with 8,588 deaths attributed to the virus. The daily death toll reached a new high May 6 when 667 people died after contracting the coronavirus.
Brazil’s health minister Nelson Teich says for the first time that lockdowns may be needed in the country as daily cases and deaths hit new highs. While authorities have ordered non-essential services and businesses closed in most states, residents are still allowed to circulate. A lockdown, which so far has only been implemented in the city of Sao Luis in the country’s northeast, prohibits people from leaving their homes except for certain necessary activities.
