Portugal detected 13 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Monday, all involving players and staff of top division soccer club Belenenses SAD, one of whose players recently returned from South Africa, health authority DGS said.
Belenenses is one of Portugal's oldest clubs, but split with Belenenses SAD in 2018 over a dispute and were forced to start again from the bottom of the Portuguese football pyramid.
'Our intentions were, and still are, to ensure the entire workforce is given as much protection as possible from redundancy and/or loss of earnings during this unprecedented period'