Valencia's battle on 2 fronts: virus and sceptics

LONDON • Anil Murthy had already been facing a barrage of criticism. But as a former diplomat for Singapore, Murthy, the president of Valencia, a top football team in Spain, was ready for most of the barbs directed his way for imposing restrictions on access to the club's players.

On Feb 29, however, the complaints became more personal. His 13-year-old son, Aditya, was furious that his father would not let him attend the La Liga game that night against Real Betis. It was at the Mestalla, the stadium Aditya fell in love with after his father was handed the reins to Valencia by Peter Lim, the Singaporean businessman who owns the club.

Valencia were starting to take heat from the local media and some rival teams for what they considered to be an over-reaction to the threat posed by a mystery illness that had spread to Europe from Asia. No other team in Spain had dared to impose such harsh measures.

Murthy, who had spoken to friends and family in Asia, knew the coronavirus outbreak was serious and on its way, no matter what the view in Spain was at the time.

He imposed strict measures: The club's first team were to be isolated. There was to be no contact with fans. All interviews, even those deemed mandatory as a part of Spanish football's broadcast contract, would be banned. Employees who did not have a reason to be at the stadium were barred. The prohibition extended to family members, including die-hards like Aditya.

"He couldn't understand it," Murthy said, describing the argument he had with his son, the merits of which have become far more apparent. Spain has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases, after the United States.

"Dude, why? We are sitting apart. We are sitting somewhere else,'" Murthy recalled his son saying. "I said, 'No, let's take maximum precaution.'" Murthy did not want to attend the game that evening either. But with Spanish authorities yet to ban mass gatherings and the league continuing with its schedule, he felt that he had no option but to go.

"To me, having 30,000, 40,000 in the stadium when the infection is on the rise is a ticking bomb," Murthy said in a phone interview. But there's only so much a club can do."

He arrived one minute after kickoff, turning heads in the directors' box as they thought he would not be attending. He had explained to Angel Haro, the chairman of Betis, that the traditional meal between directors would not take place. Other traditions typical to La Liga games would also be skipped, and while Haro was not totally convinced, he did not complain.

The same could not be said of the news media, which greeted Murthy with a wave of negative headlines until shortly before the league suspended all activities.

Murthy, who spent almost 16 years working with Singapore's government, was keeping an eye on what was happening there while the team owner, Lim, was sending daily updates."He was telling me, 'You better take whatever action is possible right now because it's coming your way,'" Murthy recalled Lim saying in one phone call.

"We had warnings all over Asia, the world is so connected, everyone is travelling, how can it not be possible that this will hit us, too?"

While Murthy's wife and three children returned to Singapore, he remained in Valencia, which has found itself at the heart of football's relationship with the coronavirus: Not only was it the first team in Spain to impose social distancing measures, it also took the field for a Champions League game in Milan against Atalanta on Feb 19 that has since been described as a "biological bomb".

Some medical experts place the game at the heart of Europe's first major Covid-19 outbreak, in Italy's Lombardy region. Since then, 35 per cent of Valencia's first team has tested positive for the coronavirus.

When the teams played again, on March 10, the match took place in eerie silence unfamiliar for the Mestalla because Spain had restricted mass gatherings. Atalanta triumphed, 4-3, in what would be Valencia's last game before their season was brought to a halt.

Valencia is trying to mitigate the pain of the shutdown, cutting costs where it can. But like teams in most of Europe's biggest leagues, it has yet to find a way to reduce its biggest cost: players' salaries.

In Spain - as in England and Italy - La Liga failed to reach an agreement with the players' union for a general pay cut. Murthy is negotiating with his roster directly, in talks that have been led by the team's five captains. It has not been easy.

The club has opened its books to show the players what is at stake and to persuade them "that we are not trying to sell you a nonsense to cut your wages and take advantage of it," Murthy said.

Training sessions at the team's practice facility have been replaced by a one-hour workout led by Valencia's fitness trainer through video conferencing. The work-from-home protocol was worked out well in advance of the stoppage, at about the time Murthy's caution was being ridiculed.

Now, Valencia's fate is no longer in its hands. "In the end, the Spanish government has to give the OK," Murthy said. "That is another great uncertainty."

NYTIMES