The two-time League 1 champion, the Lima Allianceand six other soccer teams from Peru They refused to compete in the opening day of the national championship this weekend after the announcement that it would be behind closed doors, they announced Thursday night in a statement.
He Alianza Lima, Club FBC Melgar, Sport Boys Association, Club Deportivo Municipal, Deportivo Binacional, Club Cienciano and Club Cusco FC They have decided to refuse to play after the announcement on Wednesday that the League was going to resume without an audience due to security measures.
He Opening Tournament of League 1 It started this weekend behind closed doors after two days in which the championship was suspended due to the anti-government demonstrations that plague everything Peru since December 11 and total 66 deaths.
“We state that we will not participate in League 1 2023 until the Peruvian Football Federation lift the irregular precautionary measure that it has managed to impose arbitrarily and illegally by going to the Judiciary and that puts the present and future of Peruvian soccer at risk,” the teams cited in the statement reported.
They expressed that playing without an audience “attempts” against the economies of the clubs, who have in the sale of tickets an “extremely important” source of income for their institutional objectives and work plans for the short, medium and long term.
They consider that the television broadcast and private interests have been prioritized, without considering the future claims and returns that they will have to assume in front of fans who already had their tickets for this weekend.
The clubs declared that the president of the FPF, Agustin Lozano, “It does not represent the interests of the clubs accordingly” and for this reason they request “his immediate resignation from office.”
“We thank the Government for the initiative to support sport and professional football as a basic element of society and in this line we hope that it calls all sports clubs and that together we make an effort to unlock the judicial, institutional and operational issues for the soon restart of the League 1 championship,” the statement said.
At this point, he refers to the meeting of the prime minister this Wednesday with the president of the Peruvian Football Federation and the national coach, Juan Reynosoafter which they announced that the local soccer league will begin to be played this weekend without an audience in the stadiums.
“The Government is going to grant the permits. Initially, stadiums are going to be closed this weekend and, starting next week, we will be evaluating the show for all Peruvians,” Otárola assured in statements to local media this Wednesday.
The President of the Council of Ministers assured that the National Police of Peru (PNP) “will provide all the guarantees” and will “certainly” evaluate areas where social conflict has been greatest.
In this sense, Otárola He said that the idea of the Government and the FPF is that “Peruvians can have access to sport and that professional soccer be reactivated like all the activities in the country.”
“We have to decisively support our Peruvian team, which needs to see the players, have training sessions and, above all, call on all the professional soccer teams to contribute to this process of consolidating peace in the country through sports. “, concluded the prime minister, before avoiding answering questions related to politics.
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