Guadalajara Officials Respect Postponement Decision

Guadalajara President Pedro Saez said he was fine with the decision to postpone his team's Copa Libertadores matches.

May 2, 2009 3:42:08 AM

More On :  Guadalajara
Alberto Medina- Chivas (Mexsport)
After walking away from their midweek draw against Everton, Guadalajara looked forward to getting back into the swing of things with Sao Paulo in the knockout rounds of Copa Libertadores next week.

Instead, the game has been put off a week because of the H1N1 outbreak in Mexico.

CONMEBOL postponed Copa Libertadores matches involving Guadalajara and San Luis given the confederation's inability to find a location for the Mexican clubs' home legs of their respective Round of 16 series.
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"We respect the decision," Guadalajara President Pedro Saez said. "We would have liked to have played but that's how it is."

The influenza outbreak has claimed more than 150 lives in Mexico, according to reports. With the country all but shut down because of the outbreak, playing matches in Mexico was apparently the first option ruled out. CONMEBOL had hoped to play the games in either Colombia or Chile but the respective governments were cool to the idea and squashed it.

Finding a suitable place to host the series, or whether to play the series at all, is something that will be played out at some point, club officials said.

"As the release read, we're in 'stand-by' mode this week until CONMEBOL rules accordingly," Saez said. "They organize the tournament. We offered various proposals but none were suitable. They tried to find a solution through other means but were also unable to do so."


With Colombia and Chile pulling their support for the Mexican clubs, Saez said he understood and respected the decision.

"Those nations' governments took precautions given the public health situation that exists," Saez said. "I see that as measures that they were well within their rights to take."

While a week off won't necessary be a terrible thing for this team, there are plusses and minuses in the situation.

"This week of rest will probably be good for the team," Saez admitted. "But we have a lot of motivation and that kept us united so we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

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