Valencia Took Swift Action on Coronavirus, Then Took a Lot of Heat

Murthy arrived one minute after kickoff, turning heads in the directors’ box. “They thought I wasn’t coming,” he said. He had explained to Ángel 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, including the children accompanying the two sides onto the field. Haro was not totally convinced, but 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 traveling, how can it not be possible that this will hit us, too?”

The club’s staff got to work, preparing for the outbreak in part by purchasing protective clothing and equipment. “You try to buy a mask today, it’s impossible,” Murthy said. Much of the equipment, he said, has now been donated to the local health care system as it strains to cope with coronavirus cases.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/sports/soccer/coronavirus-soccer-valencia.html