Luanda - The doctor of Angola’s 1º de Agosto football team, Virgílio Paez, said he was surprised with six positive cases of Covid - 19 registered in five players and an employee of the club, an hour and a half before the match against Tanzania’s Namungo FC for the first leg of the CAF Confederations Cup qualifiers.
The doctor, who was speaking following the expressive defeat of 2-6 suffered by 1º de Agosto in Tanzania, said he did not understand the outcome of the testing in Tanzania, since the team was subject to strict protocol measures and came from a history of negative results to RT-PCR, made on February 14 and 17 before and after a domestic match.
In a communication posted on the site of the club, the doctor said it was strange that they had notified them about the positive results only an hour and a half before the game, giving no time for the technical team to articulate the squad.
Allegedly the positive cases were recorded by the goalkeeper Neblú, central midfielders Bobó and Boni, midfielder Mário, and striker Mabululu, in addition to the team coordinator, Untonesa Sampaio.
1º de Agosto play again on Thursday, at the same venue, for the second leg.
The Angolan champions have been instructed by the African Football Confederation to play both matches in Tanzania after the cancellation of the first leg on February 14 at Luanda’s 11 de Novembro stadium after five athletes of the visiting team tested positive to the Covid-19 test.
Tanzania filed a protest to CAF opposing to the measure.
