| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2009 
Flu Puts Futbol Out of Reach for Fans in Mexico
 Mark Zeigler - San Diegto Union-Tribune
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They call soccer the opiate of the masses, a necessary diversion from the perils and pessimism of everyday life, the great escape.
Which makes the current outbreak of swine flu influenza porcina in Spanish all the more depressing for Mexico. It has infected thousands and likely killed hundreds. It has paralyzed the world's second-largest metropolitan area. It has closed schools until May 6. It has decimated the tourist industry.
And now it has reached its nefarious tentacles into futbol, the most sacred of pastimes in a nation of 109 million, the one place people could, for a few hours at least, abandon their fears and frustrations. Officials from Mexico's soccer federation, the FMF, made the grim announcement yesterday: Fans can't attend games this weekend.
Three games in Mexico's 18-team premier league were played behind puerta cerrada, or closed doors, last weekend, two in Mexico City and one in Pachuca. Now all nine games this week one Friday, six Saturday, two Sunday will be.
Mexico City club Cruz Azul was supposed to host Atlante tonight in the finals of the CONCACAF Champions League, the region's annual club championship. That game has been postponed until May 12.
The CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championships scheduled to open today in Puerto Vallarta? Postponed indefinitely.
On Monday, the remainder of the CONCACAF region's Under-17 championships at Tijuana's Estadio Caliente was scrapped. Semis were supposed to be today and an expected U.S.-Mexico final Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon, Tijuana's second division club reclaims Estadio Caliente for its final regular-season game. That will go on as planned at 1 p.m. . . . without fans. They'll have to settle for watching it live on the Internet on the club's Web site ( www.xolos.com.mx ) or on delayed television.
The playoffs for promotion to Mexico's premier league begin May 10, also at home. The fate of that game will be decided late next week.
Yes, it affects us, Mario Trejo, the sporting director for Mexico City club Pumas, told Mexican TV. But it is more important to prevent the spread of the disease . . . We don't want to give the idea to our fans that we are more worried about (money) than about their health.
Record newspaper estimated that the nine games this weekend in Mexico's top league would draw a combined 182,000 and generate $1.7 million in ticket revenue. Add in parking and concessions, and the figure swells to $3.5 million.
The other consideration is teams, in the thick of the race for playoff spots, having to play in empty stadiums and not having their usual home-field advantage. On Sunday, Club America hosted UAG Tecos before 105,000 vacant seats in Mexico City's Estadio Azteca and lost 2-1, essentially extinguishing its postseason aspirations and igniting Tecos'.
The natural solution would be to suspend the entire week's games and simply resume when the national health emergency is lifted. That way clubs wouldn't absorb millions of pesos in lost revenue, and fans could bask in the spring sunshine, drink cerveza and watch their beloved club battle on the field below.
To suspend the league, FMF General Secretary Decio de Maria said, would be very complicated.
This is Week 16 of the 17-week Clausura season. The regular season concludes May 9 and 10, followed by three rounds of playoffs where teams play twice a week. That takes them through the end of May.
World Cup qualifying, so crucial to Mexico given its poor start and recent coaching change, resumes June 6. There is another qualifier June 10.
Pushing back the league season a week or two would mean new national coach Javier Aguirre would be in the unenviable position of yanking players from clubs during the league semifinals or finals. And canceling games altogether would mean massive losses for the TV networks that are the lifeblood of federation (translation: It ain't going to happen).
So puerta cerrada it is.
The crisis has even reached England. Mexican star Carlos Vela plays for Arsenal, which travels to Manchester United today for the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League. Vela wasn't at practice Monday, and reporters asked coach Arsene Wenger why.
Wenger explained that Vela had some friends from Mexico visit him recently, and the midfielder was told to stay home from practice a de facto quarantine until team officials could be certain he wasn't infected with influenza porcina.
Vela received clearance yesterday and is expected to be on the roster for today's game, a ray of hope in an ever-darkening storm.
mark.zeigler(at)uniontrib.com
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