Football | AFC: Undermanned Benfica to play group favorite

Following a great start to its first ever participation in the group stage of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup, Benfica de Macau will be forced to play with many sidelined players in its coming match against the widely regarded toughest team of the group. Today, Benfica will face North Korean Champion “April 25 Sports Club,” considered the strongest team of the group and standing on an equal footing as Benfica with six points so far accrued.

However, the Macau delegation will be smaller than usual, with the team saying it will be able to send only 14 players to the North Korean capital.
Interviewed by the Times, the president of Benfica de Macau, Duarte Alves, noted that “unfortunately” the team does not have the status of the national team, meaning it is not guaranteed certain staff exemption documents from the government.

Consequently, he said, “we will only be able to take 14 players to the next game in North Korea.”

The team’s media relations director, João Varela, explained that “Benfica de Macau had asked for a waiver letter from the Sports Bureau (ID) so that players could represent the club on overseas trips to the AFC Cup, as they do when they play in official AFC and FIFA matches.”

The ID was unable to issue this kind of exemption and instead drafted a letter requesting that employees consider providing annual leave to their staff members who have been asked to play in the upcoming Benfica match.

Alves noted that this ID document that cannot be used to justify a player’s absence from work.

The ID confirmed the above information, stating, “regarding the football club Macau Casa Benfica’s participation in ‘AFC CUP 2018,’ the club had applied for declaration letters of participation for its players earlier through the Macau Football Association. We have already issued the declaration letters of participation according to the request and characteristics of the competition.”

According to what the Times could ascertain, there is no legal provision that allows athletes to take a leave of absence while representing sports associations. In the cases of athletes representing Macau as a national team, the ID provides a letter to the athletes to deliver to their employers seeking their cooperation, but it has “no binding power.”

As for athletes working as civil servants, the only way to compete is to take “days off” from the annual leave, a former athlete told the Times, noting, “all depends on the chiefs and leaders, some are more sympathetic to this [leave request] than others.” During the first game played by Benfica last month in Pyongyang, some players went to North Korea using their annual leave.

Benfica’s upcoming match is certain to be challenging, with many key players sidelined for the Yanggakdo Stadium game in the North Korean capital. It is truly a herculean task which, in the opinion of the organizing team, could be eased with a little good will from the people in Macau.

Benfica will face a powerful squad of the April 25 Club, composed of several North Korea national team players and led by the former head coach of the North Korea national football team, Kim Jong-hun.